The Second Born
by williams5505
Summary: Naruto Namikaze is the second son of the Yondaime Hokage, raised by his older brother. Born with a legendary Rinnegan, Naruto must master his power if he is to meet his destiny and save the world from being overcome by the Akatsuki and its new leader.
1. The Path of Pain

Thank you for finding my story and giving it a chance. There are some important changes that must be known before you begin the story.

First, in my story, Pain is actually the Deva Path with orange hair that was said to be the body of Yahiko. Search "Akatsuki Leader' or 'Pein' on Google images and you will know who I'm talking about.

Second, as an author I will do my best not to change the personalities of the characters created by Masashi Kishimoto. Writing anything short of that would be like creating an original character with the same name as Naruto. I will change many key and minor points around in the story, but I will keep all the non-original characters with their personalities. Let's begin.

(Note: This story is going to be huge and more than likely it will hold the longest chapters you will ever find. This isn't a warning as much as it a simple notice, depending on your preferences of reading. If you are interested in rather petite and somewhat unsatisfying stories, please continue your seach because that is not what you will find here. Also, Naruto will not be overpowered early on in this story, and he will have to earn his powers throughout the plot. This is not the story where he can match up evenly against Orochimaru in the Chunin Exams. Romance is carefully and realistically slow placed, and you won't find Naru-Hina until their relationship developes over time and in later chapters.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The Second Born

Chapter 1: The Path of Pain

The day had been long, and he was exhausted.

Nagato Namikaze looked below to what once was his village and closed his eyes as tears of sorrow fell down into the warm night. The large full moon that hung above him in the starry sky fully illuminated his face, reavealing the sorrow that it held. He felt the light and reassuring pressure of a hand fall upon his shoulder, and he didn't need to turn around to know who it was. He now openly wept until he was able to control himself.

"Today has been a day of suffering and loss," he declared in a voice filled with pain. "Konan, are you prepared to leave?"

He turned to his 19-year-old pure-blue haired female teammate and slowly ran his hand across her forehead looking at her pearly pupil-less eyes. Both of them were teenagers exposed to the cruel reality that is the life of a shinobi, and neither of them deserved what fate had bestowed upon them.

"Hai, I am prepared," she responded looking into the circles of his power filled eyes. The power of the Rinnegan.

"The seal is gone," he whispered in relief, now looking at her forehead with relief in his eyes. "There's no trace of chakra left…The removal was a success, and now you are free of that curse. Our mission… is almost complete."

Nagato turned once more to look upon his beloved village of Konoha. He sat down on the ground above the Hokage Monument as he thought of what still had to be done. The wind gently blew across his face as Konan sat next to him, wondering if there was a way to comfort him. He grieved for his father, for his mother, for the village, but most of all for his beloved brother. He had a duty as a shinobi of the leaf that he had to carry out, for the protection of all; his brother and the Shinobi world. His father had sacrificed his life for this village defeating the Kyuubi and he would be damned if seven years later it was destroyed by a coup d'etat. He closed his eyes as he thought of the last strong memories of his mother and of his father, the Yondaime Hokage.

* * *

_Flash Back – 7 years ago_

"Hokage-sama, it's been confirmed. The Kyuubi is headed for Konoha and will arrive in less than five days," stated a nervous messenger before the high chair of the Hokage's meeting room.

The Yondaime closed his eyes and placed his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair. All of the summoned Jonin, Anbu and Chunin present were standing before him silent as they waited for a response. A meeting as important and large as this one needed a room larger than the Hokage's office, so they gathered in another meeting room. Now, everyone was standing, waiting in fear. Fear of the Kyuubi, a demon only heard of in legends, which was surely coming to destroy their village. Even the most arrogant Uchiha present knew that his most powerful attack wouldn't even satisfy an itch of the Kyuubi. All hopeful and worried faces were upon their leader and only hope as he opened his eyes.

"Do not worry, for I have a plan," he spoke, loud enough for all to hear. "The Kyuubi is powerful; we all know this. There will be many fellow ninja who will die protecting the village."

Many ninja present quickly began to lose hope. If strongest shinobi in the world was unable to defeat the Kyuubi, then…

The strongest shinobi was not finished.

"But do not lose hope! He may take our lives, but there is no foe strong enough or no technique known that can extinguish our Will of Fire!" the Hokage shouting jumping up from his throne.

With such strong determination in his eyes, all were reminded why the 4th Hokage was claimed so powerful. Hope began to arise.

"There is nothing you can do for now. The burden of the Kyuubi is on my shoulders." the Hokage continued. "For now, go home and enjoy your family and loved ones; cherish your lives and those who you care about. Inform the population of my village of the Kyuubi, but give them hope! For we will be victorious! In three days time I will call a meeting of the entire village, speak of my plan, and then the children and mothers and citizens will be evacuated. The Kyuubi is a demon; he will care nothing of time and being punctual. He will have no problem arriving early. Hiruzen, stay after, we have much to talk about. You are all dismissed!"

Despite there being a door, all of the present ninja simply teleported away in seconds, leaving behind smoke and leaves. When it all cleared, the Sandaime remained in the meeting room.

Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, dropped his emotional mask and began to weep while he told the Hokage of what he had planned.

A horrified Nagato Namikaze, son of the Yondaime, and soon to be a brother, left his hiding spot in the ceiling of the meeting room. He had successfully eavesdropped on this important meeting that was only for ninja of the Chunin rank or higher. He, though stronger than nearly all in the room, was still a Genin. He had always been praised as a prodigy, and had been training with his father since before he can remember. At age 7, he had activated his family's Kekkei Genkai, the bloodline limit, the Rinnegan. Now, nearly at age 13, he truly was a prodigy. One of the first lessons his father had been teaching him was chakra control, from how to walk on walls and water to masking your chakra from the normal senses of enemy shinobi.

Nagato had done just that as he listened in on how his father planned to defeat the Kyuubi.

His father's plan was logical; even the Sandaime, Hiruzen Sarutobi, agreed with it. His father was going to die sealing the Kyuubi within a young, preferably newborn baby. His little brother.

It was a logical plan, as the Yondaime had recently created this forbidden sealing jutsu, and he was the only one who knew how to use it. The Sandaime, in an effort to save his successor, would be furiously trying to learn the technique over the next five days, but he wouldn't be able to.

Of course he wouldn't. It was all logical.

But Nagato still hated it. He also hated crying, but that's what he did as he ran on top of the rooftops heading towards the Hokage monument.

His father, his Jonin sensei, would be dead in five days.

His dad had volunteered to be his Jonin sensei when it was time for Nagato to be a Genin, which was a year ago. His father had devoted his time to training his new Genin, while he left a special shadow clone in his office to do all of the 'boring stuff', as he put it. Nagato was considered even more of a prodigy than Itachi Uchiha, who was one year his junior, and he had been ready to be a Genin when most of the kids his age didn't even know what a kunai was yet. His father had always taught him that Shinobi ranking was just a formality, and that he should never underestimate his opponents, but he still had to make the rank of Genin the move up and complete harder missions.

So Nagato had been paired up with two other prodigies under the guidance of the Yondaime as their sensei, who had completed his duty as a sensei over Kakashi.

Life had been good then, but now his world was falling before him.

On the hill above the Hokage's monument, Nagato wept into the warm night, as he thought of the destruction to come to the village, and to his life.

* * *

_End of Flashback_

Nagato grimaced as he resurfaced from his memories. What had happened next became the worst day of his life.

* * *

_Flash Back – 7 years ago _

It was morning, and the peacefully village of Konoha was oddly silent, almost as if the birds themselves who found it their responsibility to fill the air with melodious chirping knew that the impending doom known as the Kyuubi was approaching. Nagato sat outside the hospital door where his mother lay soon to give birth to his brother. The Kyuubi was near. Everyone could feel it; the sinister chakra that seemed to be slowly creeping over Konoha. The nine-tailed demon fox would arrive today.

He thought of one of his teammates, Konan Hyuuga. She was sitting in the chair next to him, asleep; for she had fallen to slumber due to exhaustion on his shoulder. She had stayed in the hospital all of last night with him when his mother began giving birth. They had known that she was going to have baby very soon, and for the past two days she had been in the hospital.

Nagato had hoped that Naruto would be born late so he could avoid being used for the sealing. Nagato knew that it was selfish, but this was his brother! It was unfair that Naruto would have to become the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi!

His other teammate would have been there to support him but he was busy evacuating the population to a hidden part of the village and-

He was interrupted from is thoughts as his father opened the door of the emergency room.

"Father!" he yelled, "What's happened? Is Naruto born yet?" Nagato knew about Naruto's name because his parents had been talking about it for quite some time. After a short visit from Jiraiya who was announced as their Godfather, the name 'Naruto', which was the main character of his novel, was all but confirmed for the yet-to-be born child.

Minato Namikaze put his head down; tears were falling down from his face. The soon-to-be Hero of Konoha was breaking down.

"Father, what's wrong?" Nagato asked hesitantly, for he was not prepared to hear any more bad news.

Yet the news still came.

"S-She's…" Minato was clearly having difficulty saying this. "She's dying" he announced in no more than a whisper, as if he himself did not accept it.

Nagato sat back down with a shocked look on his face. Konan, who had been awake just in time to hear the news, broke down crying. She had no parents, nor could she remember them, and Nagato's parents were the closest family that came to mind. They easily welcomed her in, and they were so kind to her…

Minato gritted his teeth and continued. "She successfully gave birth to Naruto. B-b-but there w-was too much…too much blood. S-she's in surgery now but t-they said t-that…" He lowered his head again and wept.

"T-This wasn't supposed to happen. My son, Nagato, you weren't supposed to lose both of us… I'm sorry." Minato finished, looking at his son with is yellow Rinnegan activated.

Nagato was in too much shock to respond. No…this _wasn't_ supposed to happen. Why? Why to our family?

Minato spoke. "The nurses will come out to tell you when she is ready to speak. I need to make sure Naruto is alright"

With that, he disappeared in a yellow flash, leaving Nagato and Konan to suffer alone.

Nagato entered in his mother's room along with Konan. There were three medic-nins running through clipboards, with a look of desperation and hopelessness on their faces. The two teammates saw Nagato's mother laying there on her deathbed, smiling at them when they entered.

"Nagato, Konan, how are you?" she asked in a jokingly manner. Even near her death she managed to keep her sense of humor. Nagato acted more like his father: reserved yet friendly, easy-going yet determined. Hopefully Naruto would grow with a sense of humor…

"M-Mother…I" he began.

"Shhh, I just wanted to say goodbye to my son and my daughter before I leave," she kindly explained with a peaceful expression on her face.

Konan was shocked to hear this. "Y-Your d-daughter?" she stuttered out to her.

She responded. "Yes sweetie. You have always been like a daughter to me and Minato-kun. And Nagato, you have always been a great child. Raising you was such a great experience. I…" Whatever she had to say was stopped as she began to cough.

One of the worried medic-nins quickly spoke up after hearing her cough. "Kushina-sama, you need to rest! You have no strength! You've lost so…"

"I know, geez, I'm a grown woman now!" she managed to giggle despite the pain.

Another medic-nin arrived through the door.

"The Hokage has arrived," he announced. He took one sad glance at Kushina before he left the room.

"Nagato, Konan," Kushina said to her young loved ones. "Good-bye. Always know that I loved both of you. And please… please watch over my Naruto-chan."

Nagato and Konan soon left with new tears in their eyes.

* * *

_Later_

"My dear, he's so wonderful and energetic. And he looks just like me!" Minato told her with a sad tone in his voice. His first-born Nagato took a mixture of his parent' hair colors; Minato had shocking yellow hair, Kushina had pure red hair, and Nagato had bright orange hair. But Naruto had yellow hair and looked just like his father.

Kushina peacefully sighed as she cradled her second-born son against her chest. Suddenly, the will of fire came upon her and her motherly instincts consumed her logic.

"No!" she screamed. "I won't let you use him for the sealing! Not my son! I won't allow it!" she continued to yell at him.

Minato tried to explain to his now enraged wife what they had discussed before.

"Kushi-chan, you have to understand, I told you before that…"

"I change my mind!" she yelled again, tears of sadness streaming down her face. "Why does it have to be our family? There is so much happening to our family now…why can't you take another young child?" Kushina asked her lover.

Minato sighed. They had been over this before. He looked into the eyes of his lovely wife. The beautiful eyes that were once so full of energy were now almost lifeless and filled with sadness, which was all slowly fading away.

"How…How can I?" he quietly answered. "How can I ask another parent to sacrifice their child for the sealing? How can I look into the eyes of a mother and tell her to give me her child for the Kyuubi? How can I tell someone else to do a duty that even I am not able to perform?"

Kushina frowned. He had given her this speech before, though it sounded less worse when he had first told her. She coughed once more, feeling her own energy seep out of her with every breath. She could feel death coming upon her as she grew tired.

"M-Minato…I love you. I always have…" She told her husband, growing quiet.

He placed the sleeping baby aside in his crib, and he leaned in and gently kissed his wife.

"I've always loved you too Kushina..." Minato was holding back tears as he looked upon the love of his life.

Kushina closed her eyes and smiled as she rested her head in her pillow.

That night, the man who would sacrifice his son, kill himself in the process and lose everything had to watch his wife slowly die in his arms.

* * *

_Outside of Konoha_

The mighty Kyuubi in all his glory and rage began attacking Konoha. With his powerful nine tails swinging around, crushing mountains and uprooting trees, the demon was unstoppable. His evil chakra swept before the entire village, leaving a sense of horror in the memory of all. Children cried, and the citizens were frozen in fear gnashing their teeth.

All of the ninja Chunin rank and above were attacking the Kyuubi, doing all they could to hold it back. Anbu elites stood on the tree-tops casting powerful jutsus to the demon that was threatening their village.

Yet nothing was working.

Any hope of defeating this monster was lost the moment his presence was felt in full force. There was only one person that could possibly save them all now…

One Jonin of the village roughly landed against a tree as he was knocked back by the demon. Others who were beside him were clearly affected by fatigue and pain.

"Hold the attack and wait for the Fourth Hokage!" he shouted to he comrades. With that, he jumped back into the fight.

"Don't let it get any closer to the village!" another Jonin yelled out.

With that said, and explosion of destruction that rivaled the Kyuubi appeared next to the gathered shinobi. A giant toad with and equally giant sword and smoking pipe appeared on the battle field, with none other than the Fourth Hokage on top of it. To everyone, he was a sight for sore eyes.

* * *

_On top of Gamabunta_

He came for one purpose; to use one jutsu.

Minato closed his eyes as he prepared himself for what he had to. He had one last talk with his son Nagato before he had to leave for his duty. Nagato seemed to have accepted that Naruto was best suited for the sealing process.

Nagato believed that his little brother would be responsible enough to hold the Kyuubi as well. He also trusted that his father, who was the world's top first-class sealing master, would be able to create a seal strong enough that Naruto wouldn't even know that he contained the demon.

However, he disagreed when Minato claimed that he would be viewed as a hero. Surely the village would turn on the boy who held the Kyuubi.

Minato's last wish to Nagato was that he would protect and watch over Naruto.

"Naruto", he thought. "You deserve so much more than this. You deserve a full family. I'm sorry for what I have to do."

Minato smiled as he gathered the chakra needed to perform the sealing jutsu. Fighting the fox head on would only lead to his death, which the village couldn't afford, or it would lead to him no longer having enough chakra to use the sealing jutsu.

"Looks like this is it, Gamabunta, my old friend." the Hokage sadly called out to his summoning partner. Over the years the two had formed a powerful bond while working together.

"Damn it Minato! Why do you have to be the one to sacrifice yourself?" the giant toad complained. "You're a great ninja, and it was good working with you... I hope that I will meet one of your sons when they learn to summon me. Otherwise I'll be stuck with Jiraiya." the toad chuckled. "Farewell Minato…"

* * *

_Battlefield_

As if the Kyuubi could sense his own doom, he rushed to the toad in hopes of killing whatever was summoning such a powerful force.

But the demon was too late.

The Yondaime finished the necessary seals and in a brilliant flash a light, he activated the jutsu.

And the Kyuubi was no longer among the living.

Minato fell on his knees on top of Gamabunta, smiling at his accomplishment. He had saved the village. He smiled as he thought about his beautiful wife and their children, until he fell over, dead.

* * *

_Hospital Room_

A seal appeared on baby Naruto's stomach.

The Sandaime sighed. "It is finished." he announced to the medic-nins in the room as well as Nagato.

Nagato slumped down against the wall of the candle-lit room, grieving for the loss of his father, his mother and now for the Kyuubi being sealed within his brother.

His pain had begun.

* * *

_End of Flashback_

Nagato opened his eyes, Rinnegan activated. He turned and spoke to his teammate.

"Konan, where is he now?"

Sitting up straight, she formed a hand sign and concentrated for a minute before she responded.

"He's in the compound. We should probably go and see is he is alright."

Nagato nodded and stood up. "Let's go." he said reaching out his arm. Konan took hold of his arm and together they vanished in a bright orange flash.

* * *

_The Uchiha Compound_

Itachi Uchiha landed on top of a telephone pole with the moon behind him. His mission was emotionally destroying him. He closed his eyes as he remembered what the council had told him. _Annihilate the entire Uchiha Clan, every one involved in their evil plan…_

The words of the council and of the Sandaime still ran in his head. He was chosen for this because he could infiltrate the compound without suspicion and destroy it from the inside. Especially now with his new eyes, he was perfect for the job.

But that didn't mean that he had to enjoy it. The blood of his best friend Shisui and his girlfriend will forever be stained on his hands. And soon he would kill his parents, who were the ringleaders of the Uchiha Clan's plan of coup d'etat. Over the past few years he had grown farther away from his father; there was something off about that man. It wasn't hard to believe that as Clan Head he was in charge of the plans.

But his mother? She was always so kind to him, to everyone! He would have to interrogate as to whether or not she was a part of this foolish plan as well.

He would have to rest for a few minutes, as he had to use his Mangekyou Sharingan to kill the last group of the Uchiha Military Police Force that had formed a group and attacked him.

* * *

_2 weeks ago_

"Shisui, the plan," Itachi begged him. "Please tell me it's not true. Tell me you're against it!"

Shisui, his best friend since young, laughed evilly in his face. "Of course I am a part of plan." he responded. "Ever since I was young I have been raised on the plan to take over Konoha, kill the Namikaze's and the Hyuuga's, and how the blood of the Uchiha is the strongest in the world." He stopped and though for a moment. "I am curious as to why you never knew about it."

Itachi put his head down in pain. So it was true. The council and the Sandaime's suspicions were true. But he didn't understand, Shisui of all people…

"Shisui!" he yelled, aggravated now. "The idea of our blood being better is moronic! All of us should stop being lazy and strive for self perfection instead of relying on our 'Uchiha Blood'" Itachi said with disgust.

Shisui was frowning thoughtfully. "Our blood is strong, that's nothing to be ashamed of." he reasoned. "As a prodigy of our clan you should know this. I wonder why someone who doesn't even acknowledge his strength as an Uchiha would be so trusted among the clan. You _are _our undercover agent feeding us info. Unless…"

Shisui was now confused. A spy for the Uchiha clan should be one who believes in our ways. Instead he didn't seem to accept them, and he is asking him as if he was confirming it. Why did the elders not tell Itachi of the plan? Did they not trust him with such important information around the Hokage? It's almost as if…

Shisui reached a conclusion. "Don't tell me that you are double agent Itachi…"

Itachi looked up to his friend. "Yes, I am, and the Hokage has had suspicions of the Uchiha clan plotting to take over and…"

Shisui concluded for him. "I just confirmed it, didn't I?" He sighed and stood up. "Itachi, you and I may have always been best friends, but I will not let you leak this information out to the Hokage." he stated in his fighting stance, Sharingan activated.

Itachi was prepared. The Hokage had warned him that this might happen.

Shisui charged towards him.

"Then we will fight…" Itachi whispered to himself.

* * *

_End of Flashback_

Itachi had won the fight, at the cost of his best friend's life. He later made it look like Shisui had killed himself.

And now Itachi would have to finish the job with his parents. He looked at the moon behind him. It was starting to get late; he wondered where Sasuke was…

His thoughts were interrupted as an orange flash appeared in the compound on the roof next to him. When the flash disappeared, Nagato and Konan where standing on the roof.

"Itachi, have you finished?" Nagato asked out with sadness audible in his voice. He knew how hard it would be for Itachi to kill is clan.

Itachi turned to look at his teammates since young. "No, my family is still alive in the house." he replied with a perfect mask of emotions on his face. It would take years of experience as a shinobi to have such a blank mask on his face.

Nagato understood him. "Shall I do it for you?" he offered.

Itachi shook his head and disappeared in a burst of speed.

* * *

_Minutes Later_

_Thump, Thump. _His parent's bodies fell lifeless to the floor. Itachi stared at what he had just done with a mix of horror and cold fury in his eyes. Both of his parents had been the ringleaders of the clan.

He couldn't believe it.

He didn't have much time to think as he sensed his brother's chakra outside of the door

Right on cue, a 7-year-old Sasuke entered the room.

"Mother! Father!" he yelled, clearly exhausted from running around.

Itachi, hidden in the shadows, looked sadly upon his brother for what would be the last night in years. He walked forward to him.

"Brother?" Sasuke yelled in relief. If his brother was alive then… "Brother, Mother and Father are…" he couldn't complete his sentence. "Why?! How?!" he asked. "Who did this to…"

_Swiissh _Whatever Sasuke had to say was cut short as Itachi flung a shuriken at him. It was so fast, Sasuke couldn't even see it! He didn't even know what happened until a gash opened up in his shoulder.

Itachi stood still looking stone-faced at his brother, Sharingan still activated.

"Brother," Sasuke asked confused. "What are you..."

He was silenced by the emotionless glare Itachi was sending him.

"What are you doing brother?" Sasuke asked once more.

Itachi prepared his chakra for his Sharingan.

"Foolish little brother."

He closed his eyes to gather more chakra, and when he opened them Sasuke felt fear and terror freeze him.

"_Mangekyou Sharingan!_"

* * *

_Later_

Nagato sighed and once more looked upon what was his village for a last time with his team. Itachi and Konan stood next to him

Itachi closed his eyes in frustration and exhaustion. What they had done was necessary. The mission would be complete as soon as they left Konoha.

The council had originally planned for Itachi to do the mission alone, but his team insisted, that if he was to become a missing nin, then they would go with him.

Konan agreed because she was tired of the Hyuuga clan and their ancient practices. After her part of the mission was complete, the Hyuuga clan would never accept her again.

Nagato had agreed because the Uchiha clan's betrayal to the Namikaze clan. He and Naruto were now the last two members. The Namikaze clan had always been praised for their skills, and they were soon to overcome the fame of the Uchiha.

The Uchiha, using their power as the Military Police Force had sent every Namikaze ninja frontline during the Kyuubi's attack, knowing that they would die in attempts to seal the power of the beast. The Namikaze's were a smaller that the Hyuuga and Uchiha Clans, but every member was a ninja. Nagato and Naruto were the only children in the entire clan.

But now they were gone because of the Uchiha's betrayal.

The Sandaime had ordered for the three to leave before sunrise, for he would begin to search for them in the morning. They would have to leave soon.

Suddenly, a new presence was behind them.

The three turned to look at the figure. He was wearing a black robe with red clouds on it. Akatsuki.

But what stuck out most from him was his orange mask with one hole for the right eye, with spiral patterns leading to that eye hole.

He goofily waved to them, as if he didn't notice the three's moods or as if they didn't know he was there. "Hey guys!" he practically yelled at them.

The three prodigies sighed at the man's antics.

"Sensei," they replied as one.

He turned around and began to walk away, and Konan and Itachi began to follow. Nagato stayed behind and looked directly at his 7-year-old little brother's apartment.

"I am sorry, Father and Mother, that I will not be able to watch over and protect him any longer," he thought to himself. "I must leave the village that has betrayed my family and my clan. My name is now Pain, and this is my path."

"But one day I will return to see how you have grown, Naruto."

He turned to catch up with the rest of the group. "It will be interesting to see how he grows out of the shadow of what I have done tonight," he continued to think. "I am no longer the legacy of the Yondaime. Today that has passed down to the second born, Naruto Namikaze."

* * *

_End_

A/N: That was hard to write. The start is slow, and not much else could be put in that was necessary to make this chapter longer. It was only the intro. The next chapters will hopefully be longer. For now this is the last part where I will be describing what is happening with Pain and his team. Naruto will appear next chapter.

Here are the ages as of now, if you were unable to catch them.

Nagato – 19

Konan – 19

Itachi – 18

Naruto – 7

Sasuke – 7

Yes, Konan in this story is a Hyuuga, and her powers, which are very different than that in the anime and manga, will be described later when I go back to their group.

Thanks for reading. Please review what you think of this story so far and how it will go.

-williams5505


	2. Childhood

Thanks for the reviews! Also thank you for staying with this story.

This is the chapter when Naruto comes in. But it takes place one year before Nagato and his team leaves the village, so don't be confused. I do this because before we go on in the story, we need to see how Naruto changes with an older brother, so the rest of the story will fall into place.

Also, I'm going to use 'nii-san' for older brother. 'Onii-san' is what is being said when I look it up on google, yet when I hear it in the anime I only hear what sounds like 'nii-san'… also 'otouto' is little brother, 'nee-san' is older sister, and 'imouto' is younger sister for those who didn't know.

And to clear things up, I have read all of the manga chapters.

Important: I've decided that ninja's ninjutsu ability for elemental attacks will be restricted to whatever two elemental chakras they have. That means a Jonin with Earth and Water chakras won't be able to perform any fire jutsus, just like a Chunin with lighting chakra will **only **be able to perform lighting jutsus. I believe this makes more sense. This won't apply to the Uchiha's and the Namikaze's and it will be explained more in later chapters why. You will learn more about the Rinnegan's ability in my story later as well.

I have links for important pictures in my profile, for those mawho need visuals and to clear up of what I am talking about. Sorry for not having the links last chapter; they didn't seem to show up.

Regarding Japanese jutsu names, I guess I will only use them for the most obvious jutsus, as well as famous ones. 'Mangekyou Sharingan' is preferable than me writing 'Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye'. I will also use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu for Naruto's favorite technique. There's no point in me searching for the Japanese names of jutsus that no one understands, only for me to have to state the English of it anyways. Find out more as you read along.

Another notice: Nagato has no ring piercing on his body; he doesn't need them as he is in his original body and he doesn't use that technique.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Or this site if you were concerned. I also was not the person who invented the keyboard or the computer in fact. The list of what I don't own can go on, and on…

Let's Begin

The Second Born

Chapter 2: Childhood

________________________________________________________________________

_One year ago_

"_Water Style: Water Stream Jutsu!_"

6-year-old Naruto never even had a chance. He screamed as he jumped out of bed, his face soaked. "Nii-san!!" he yelled, pointing and accusing finger at his laughing older brother. After a few moments of Nagato avoiding punches, Naruto calmed down. "Naruto," Nagato said in a happy tone, "stop playing around. Dry up and let's go downstairs to the kitchen. Breakfast is almost ready."

Naruto whined as he made his way to his bathroom. "Nii-san, you suck at cooking!" he complained as he dried off. "Yesterday you burnt everything and you forced _me _to eat it up!" he continued.

Nagato sighed. "Naruto, you know one of my mottos is 'Never Waste Food'. I just wasn't hungry." He finished making Naruto's bed for him, and he put the child's clothes on his bed. He turned to the bathroom and yelled to his brother; "By the way Naruto, Konan came over today. And she's the one who's making breakfast!"

A muffled scream of joy could be heard in the bathroom. Nagato laughed to himself. His little brother sure was a handful, and he was no parent. But he played the best role of an older brother that he could, and Konan was always there for both of them by being an older sister. Itachi also helped them a lot and was considered a brother to Naruto. Naruto had been raised knowing that he was a Namikaze, though it was kept secret from him and the village that he was the son of the Yondaime, as well as a Jinchuuriki. Those of the older generation that knew of Nagato as the first born of their past hero were able to add up the facts and concluded that Naruto was the second born, but they were unable to say anything about it as it was categorized as an S-class secret. Most people believed that Naruto was a normal Namikaze, and that Nagato was watching over him because they are both of the Namikaze Clan. It was also assumed that Nagato was forced to watch over the 'Demon Child' because of the Hokage.

Some in the village who know about Naruto's parents still hated him for having the Kyuubi within him, thinking he was the Kyuubi. Those who voiced their complaints or put them into action didn't tend to live long, and they were reminded that the child had a powerful older brother who was protective.

Nagato made his way to the stairs going down to the kitchen. He was really blessed to have such a nice apartment, and for it to be paid for by the Sandaime. Six years ago, a day after the Kyuubi's attack and Naruto's birth, the Hokage had purchased this nice apartment room for them. It was meant for wealthy travelers passing by, or maybe for royalty staying for the Chunin Exams. It was fairly big, almost big enough for the bundle of energy that was Naruto.

Nagato had decided to leave the Namikaze Clan estate and go to this apartment instead. While his father was Clan Head, he wasn't ready to go back to where he was raised with his father and mother; the memories were too fresh…

He breathed deeply in an attempt to calm himself down. He had promised himself that he would never be depressed around Naruto or his friends, for they had all suffered like he had and it was unfair for him to act like such.

Konan saw him coming down and smiled at him. Her blue hair was grown out; it nearly reached her mid-back. She seemed really happy. "Nagato!" she chided in such a beautiful voice… "What did you do to Naruto this time?" she disciplined him with her hands on her hips. "I heard him scream! What did I tell you about your little pranks on the boy? One day he's going grow up and pull pranks on you, just to get even!" she concluded, giggling.

Nagato flinched. He didn't think she would hear them. He was saved from having to explain what he did as Naruto came crashing down the stairs. Nagato and Konan just watched as little Naruto made his grand entrance by tumbling down as he collapsed and lay still when he finally hit the bottom steps.

Nagato flinched again. "Naruto, I told you to slow down in the house…" he tried to explain for what seemed to be the millionth time. Naruto just jumped up and stood there looking embarrassed. "Hehehe…" he laughed nervously.

Konan laughed at him. "Naruto, one day you'll be better than Nagato at making entrances, I'm sure of it!" she told him.

"I agree," Itachi stated, appearing out of nowhere and placing his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You have potential kid," he finished.

Naruto screamed at the sudden appearance of his other 'brother' and fell back down again.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

The four sat down to eat the breakfast Konan had prepared. The food, as usual was amazing. Konan's cooking was one of the reasons that Naruto loved her so much, and why he always wanted her to come over as much as possible. But he was too busy stuffing himself and glaring at Itachi to complement her food. Nagato, however, was able to contain himself.

"Konan, the food is delicious!" he said while taking small portions of it. She blushed at his praise. Itachi agreed. "He's right Konan. And Naruto seems to think so as well," he stated, bringing the three's attention to the small boy who was eating the most. He didn't even notice the special attention he was getting.

The conversation at the table was light, relaxed and easy as everyone seemed to relax and enjoy each others company while they were eating. Once Naruto was finished, the conversation turned to him. Nagato pointed out that he had begun training Naruto in taijutsu, chakra control, and kenjutsu (sword style) for a year now. Itachi and Konan were impressed.

"Naruto, it's good to know that you are planning to become a ninja," Konan told him, smiling. "Hopefully you will become powerful one day!"

"Ya!" Naruto shouted out in enthusiasm. He had somehow managed to get on top of the table. "I'm gonna be stronger than nii-san one day, and I'm gonna be the strongest Hokage!" he claimed with confidence.

At this statement Konan visibly twitched and Itachi raised an eyebrow because of the irony. Itachi chose the moment to speak up. "Oh?" he asked Naruto. "That's nice to hear. I'm curious though as to why you want to become a Hokage."

Naruto stuck out his chest and answered Itachi's question. "People always look at me with mean faces and either yell at me or ignore me," he began. Itachi and Konan visibly saddened, and Nagato noticeably became angry. "I used to want to become Hokage so these people would acknowledge me and no longer treat me like that. But recently nii-san has helped me come up with a new reason," he continued, happy to have everyone's undivided attention on him. "I'm going to be the Hokage so I can protect all the villagers and ninja under me. I have to be willing to give my life up for the village. Then I will truly be a good leader, and people will acknowledge me as the unbeatable best Hokage!" he finished.

Nagato looked to his little brother with pride. Naruto didn't have any friends. Every time he took him out to the park, none of the children would play with him because of their _foolish _parents that knew of Naruto's prisoner. They warned their kids to stay away from Naruto, though they did not tell them why.

But Naruto was still able to love the village that scorned him, and vow to protect it. He truly was a worthy leader. Father would be proud… he thought.

________________________________________________________________________

_Training Grounds, Later_

Naruto was impatient. "Nii-san, let's go!" he yelled to his brother who had taken the opportunity to take an afternoon nap. "It's 1:00 already! We're late for my training!" he complained.

The duo was in the middle of a training field, with Nagato trying to persuade his little brother that he didn't have to train yet. "Come on Naruto," he tried to tell him, his eyes still closed. "I'm tired; we just finished our lunch break from morning training!" he finished. When he heard no response he assumed he had persuaded the boy to go elsewhere.

Naruto had other plans. After being shocked awake with a blast of water to the face several times, he had taken the time to see what hand-seals were required to complete the jutsu. He knew the seals by heart now. While he had never performed ninjutsu before, he figured now would be the time to practice. Nagato had told him the princibles. Complete the hand-seals and then push chakra into the jutsu.

Naruto, however, at age 6, had chakra reserves that would make a Chunin furious with envy. He formed the hand-seals and forced as much chakra possible into the jutsu.

Nagato, upon feeling the sudden immense chakra, sat up in alarm.

But he was too late.

"_Water Style: Water Stream Jutsu!_" he yelled at his unsuspecting brother.

Instead of the intended small, low powered stream of water, Nagato was painfully hit with a stream that more resembled that of a fire hose.

After several minutes of scolding Naruto, Nagato finally agreed to begin training him. Konan had arrived at the training grounds as well to observe Naruto's training.

"You know," Nagato tried to explain, "most kids your age would rather play around than train." He told the ecstatic child who was bouncing around. Naruto visibly saddened. "I don't have many friends to play with, nii-san," he replied with a sad face. Nagato mentally smacked himself. 'Of course that's why he prefers to train!'

"Alright Naruto," Nagato began. "You're already warmed up from this morning's training, so let's skip straight to the fun part."

Naruto was less than happy. Nagato had training methods that would make some tortures from Ibiki seem preferable.

Nagato formed the serpent hand-seal. _Earth Style: Earth Rampart! _

Nagato was then lifted up in the air as a giant wall of earth lifted him up about 150 feet in the air. But he wasn't done yet. He formed a ram seal and continued.

_Water Style: Waterfall Basin Technique! _With that a giant stream of water flew out underneath him and down the earth wall, collecting in a rather large pool of water at the bottom, forming a lake. (A/N: This part I don't understand in the anime, which is shippuuden episode 55. Yamato uses these jutsus as a presentation for Naruto, but when the waterfall was formed, how did it continue to keep coming? Where was all the water coming from? Where was it going? I'll try to explain it, but I don't really think I can…)

If one would look closely, they would notice that a portal was formed both under the lake of water and behind the waterfall, on top of the wall. Water was going down from the lake, and seemingly was transported on top of the waterfall again, creating a flowing system.

Nagato jumped off of the top of the waterfall to the side, on top of the wall once more. He went through several more jutsus before he was satisfied with his work. He turned and shouted down to Naruto. "You know the drill!" he yelled to his brother who was looking up in amazement.

The drill was not fun, nor was it meant to be. It tested endurance. Naruto had to walk behind the enormous wall to start the work-out. When Nagato gave the signal, Naruto began. The drill consisted of only of the earth wall, the waterfall and the lake beneath the water fall.

First Naruto had to jog up the entire earth wall. He could start running, but he needed to save his energy for later. The fact that he could already use chakra in his feet to climb walls was quite impressive. Nagato training Naruto for a year was showing results, as most kids his age would be unable to focus their chakra so well at age 6. But since Naruto was from the Namikaze Clan, he had an easier time learning to do so.

Once he had reached the top of the high plateau, he had to wade across in mud that had been created by Nagato. The mud went all the way up to his waist, making it very difficult to move. Naruto managed to get across the majority of the top of the plateau by forcing chakra into his legs, giving them more power and making them move faster in the mud more than humanly possibly. He cleared the mud pile in about one minute, which was an extremely fast time considering the length.

When he stepped out of the massive mud-filled area, he jogged a few yards to where he saw the water rushing out of the ground, forming the waterfall. It was flowing quite fast; it would be difficult to get on it, but that was what was necessary. Placing chakra in his feet, he jumped onto the flowing water and carefully ran to the edge. He stood still on top of the rushing water for a moment to look down the waterfall. The drop was fairly big. He took one step back then ran forward and jumped off of the waterfall.

This next step was tricky because it played onto your fear. For a ninja it was usual to jump down from high heights because sometimes it was necessary to jump high heights with chakra. But to actually look down and dive head first was tricky. But that is what Naruto did as he jumped off. Flipping forward head first, he perfectly dove into the water from the ridiculous height of the earth wall.

Next, after rising above the water from the fall, he had to swim across the lake, without using chakra. This would build muscle and it was a lot harder to do it this way.

Normally it would really hurt to dive from such a height, but Naruto had surrounded his body with chakra before he hit the water, completely protecting him from the impact.

Once Naruto swam the distance of the lake, he climbed to the surface of the water and pushed chakra into his feet so he could stand on the water. Now he ran across the surface of the water, until he reached the bottom of the waterfall.

Here he jumped up onto the flowing rapids of the waterfall and began sprinting up the water. This part was the hardest for Naruto because it was sprinting the entire distance while focusing chakra into his legs. It was especially hard to connect your feet to the falling water, and if he were to slow down to a jogging pace, the water would push him down.

After what seemed like forever, he reached the top of the waterfall and jumped onto the earth wall, panting. This time he used chakra to run on top of the muddy landscape. Doing this was different than water-walking and climbing the earth wall, as the surface was much different. Also he had to do it in a full-out-sprint. It wasn't really needed, but sometimes during his training Nagato placed a genjutsu on Naruto, and when his nii-san placed a genjutsu on him it became quite necessary. Once he reached the other end of the cliff, he took hold of the summoned zip line and slid all the way down to the beginning of the course. This zip-line, however, was not straight. The line itself was made out of a strong crystal, courtesy of Konan, so that it wouldn't break under weight. The line spiraled in circles and waved up and down somewhat resembling a roller-coaster that only went downwards. The line was built so that the user would always be traveling down so the acceleration of gravity would keep them moving. There was even a point in the line where there was a short free-fall. It was very difficult to hold on the entire length, and it took about a full minute and a half before Naruto reached the bottom.

Nagato looked on from a birds eye view, impressed. He had been watching the show from on top of a summoned earth pillar on top of his earth wall. Every time Naruto did the exercise he seemed to get faster doing it. He shouted out to Naruto who was panting from exhaustion. "Only 4 more times, Naruto!" he yelled down to him. He went through a few hand-seals and activated a genjutsu on Naruto. In his opinion, doing the endurance training was always fun when it seemed like you were in the middle of a shinobi war.

Naruto nodded and began the exercise again, this time dodging kunai and explosions.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Kenjutsu training was always easy, well considered to the endurance training. Many times to Naruto, it involved him being repeatedly beaten with a stick. Nagato had decided, against Naruto's will, that they would be training with wooden swords, instead of real ones covered in a protective chakra. He had told him that once he had mastered the basics, he would give him a real sword. And when he became even better, he would give him an even more powerful katana.

Naruto would work on the basic forms of kenjutsu. Nagato had also told him that once he chooses a specific style of taijutsu, Naruto would be able to choose a kenjutsu style that complements it.

The warm evening sun shone upon the two brothers as Nagato continued to train Naruto in the ways of kenjutsu. There was a soft breeze rolling across the training ground. The training ground that they had chosen was large enough that the earth wall Nagato had previously created was off to the side, the sound of the crashing water swaying in the wind. Nagato had chosen the moment to stop training and call it quits for the day. "Otouto," he said to his younger brother, leaning on the metal staff that he was currently using to train Naruto, which was around the same height as Nagato. Nagato had always preferred to use staffs as his weapon. He had even taught Naruto the basics for it.

"Let's stop for today. You've done a good job. Your really learning fast!" he complimented to Naruto. Naruto blushed a little at the praise and laughed while he put his hands behind his head. Naruto's relationship with his brother was not one where he constantly tried to become stronger than him, but a different one where Naruto would only try to prove himself to Nagato and earn his praise.

Konan then appeared in the right next to them. She greeted Nagato and Naruto kindly. "Hey, Nagato-kun! Hey Naruto-kun! How are you guys doing?" she asked her two friends. Nagato responded. "Naruto and I just finished our training and we were about to eat dinner at Ichiraku's, would you care to join us?"

Konan laughed and replied "Of course! Itachi will be here in a few moments. He was just finishing training his little brother, Sasuke."

At this Nagato became a little irritated. "Since when did Itachi ever want to train Sasuke?" he voiced his complaint. "He's just trying to get Sasuke stronger than Naruto! That's all he's trying to do!" Nagato yelled, furious. He turned to Naruto. "Otouto, I guess that means that we're going to train twice as hard as before!" Naruto surprisingly jumped up in excitement at the thought of training more.

"I assume that Naruto wants to go to eat ramen again, so let's go." Itachi said, once again appearing next to Naruto, scaring him.

Naruto was furious that he seemed to be the only scared at Itachi's sudden appearance. With that, they walked to Ichiraku's.

________________________________________________________________________

_Ramen Stand, Later_

Naruto was happy slurping down his ramen at a rate worthy of just sitting and watching in amazement, which several customers were doing. Nagato and his teammates were sitting next to him talking about their missions. Nagato was on Naruto's left, while Itachi was on Naruto's right. Konan was at the left of Nagato.

A few bowls later, Nagato brought up that fact that Itachi was now training Sasuke. Itachi was chill and didn't seem to care. "Actually," he clarified, "I've been training Sasuke for almost half a year now. Soon he will have mastered his first ninjutsu." Itachi said to the group.

Nagato was furious. Ninjutsu! He was going to save that for after Naruto learned more kenjutsu and taijutsu, as well as having better chakra control. But once Naruto finds out that Sasuke…

Naruto had overheard. "Nii-san," he complained. "If Sasuke can perform ninjutsu, then why can't I?" he began to ask to his older brother. Nagato sighed as he realized that Naruto would be asking him this over and over again until he got his way. He sent an evil glare at Itachi, who was smirking as if he did that on purpose. Itachi continued to push them. "Naruto, there is no hope of you beating Sasuke in the future," he told the 6-year-old. "Uchiha's advance at a rapid pace, one that you will never be able to keep up with." he finished.

Nagato interrupted before Naruto could say anything. "Is that why I am still much stronger than you, Itachi?" he asked his annoying friend. Itachi only smirked more. "What I said before still stands," he explained. "The gap between you and me, Nagato, it grows smaller every day. Soon I will become far more powerful, and then…" He was never able to finish and Nagato had turned around to Konan and began talking to her about something else that made her giggle. Itachi pretended not to care and he turned back to his rice-ball that he ordered.

A little while later, Itachi came to a conclusion. "Nagato, how about tomorrow I bring Sasuke over to you and Naruto and we can all train together?" he slyly offered. "Both of the kids would improve if they shared a friendly rivalry, wouldn't you think?" he finished.

Nagato merely sighed and responded with "sure". Naruto jumped up and down with the thoughts of training with another person. Konan frowned.

"I feel so left out," she explained to her friends. "Nowadays, all you two talk about is your brothers and whatever their doing. Being an only child is annoying," she said to the group. Naruto tried to help her out. "I'm your little brother," he innocently said to her.

Konan giggled and reached over to ruffle his hair. "Yeah, but there is not much that I can teach you, as my _Crystal Style _jutsus are unique to me, and my other _Water Style _jutsus won't help either because you are _Wind _natured, and you haven't activated your Rinnegan yet. While those of the Namikaze Clan posses all elemental chakras, you would still only be able to learn the simplest of jutsus as you have yet to develop your other chakras" she explained.

Nagato tried to think of a way around this. Most Jonins were able to develop only two elemental chakra affinities. However, Namikaze shinobi had a special bloodline that allows them to posses all elemental chakras, but they would have to develop them over time. Using the Rinnegan was the quickest way to do this; otherwise the ninja would progress as slowly as any other ninja in developing another chakra. The Uchiha were another special case. While they themselves possessed _Fire_ chakras, their Sharingan allowed them to copy and use other elemental jutsus. As long as they had their Sharingan activated, they could have just as many elemental chakras as the Namikaze's. Konan would not be able to train Naruto in _Water Style _attacks yet because his main element was _Wind, _and Naruto was too young to develop another chakra. Nagato then spoke to Konan. "All Hyuuga's have _Water _elemental chakras, just like all Uchiha's have _Fire _elemental chakras, right?" he began to explain. Konan nodded. "Then why don't you just take on an apprentice from the Hyuuga clan that is around Naruto's and Sasuke's age?" he recommended.

Konan thought about this for a moment before responding. "There is one girl who is on my mind," she began. "This girl is already training to become a kunoichi, as all Hyuuga's do at a young age. The only problem is that she is of the Main Family, and her father, as head clan may not allow me to train her." Nagato thoughtfully nodded and responded to her. "The Namikaze's have always been friendly with the Hyuuga's, and my father was a friend of the current head of the Hyuuga Clan. Konan, you're also a famous prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, I'm sure we will be able to convince him. Let's talk to him tomorrow, okay?" Konan nodded again.

With that said, the four enjoyed the rest of their meal together.

________________________________________________________________________

_Streets of Konoha, Night_

It had quickly gotten dark out while the three had eaten at the ramen stand. The friendly owner had said goodbye to his favorite customers while they paid and left. Itachi had said good-bye and then taken off to return to the Uchiha compound.

Now, Nagato and Konan were walking home together, with little Naruto bouncing around them. The walk was enjoyable, and the two enjoyed the silent walk home. Well, it was silent besides Naruto talking about how he was gonna learn ninjutsu and taijutsu and kenjutsu…

When they reached home Naruto stood bouncing at the front of the apartment. The apartment building was all theirs, as no one had wanted to share a building with the 'demon child'.

With Naruto impatiently waiting, Nagato turned to Konan, her face visible in the moonlight. "We'll see about that Hyuuga heir that you were talking about earlier tomorrow, probably after Naruto trains and goes to the park. I promised him that every Tuesdays and…"

Whatever he had planned to say was stopped short as Konan stood up on her tip-toes and kissed him lightly on the lips. Nagato stood there shocked, staring at her as if he had just seen her for the very first time.

Konan blushed and said good-night to the two, and before Nagato could say anything she jumped away into the night.

Nagato stood there looking after her while Naruto had to replay the events of what just happened. "Nagato! Why did you just kiss Konan-neesan?" he asked, staring at his older brother.

Nagato just then seemed to snap back to reality and turned to Naruto. "She kissed me," he said dead-pan, hiding any emotion in his face and voice. "And if Itachi ever finds out about this Naruto, I am making the earth wall 500 feet taller, and you're going to have to do another 100 push-ups in the morning. And then no more ramen for a month," he threatened. Naruto was near tears at the thought of the absence of his ramen. Oh wonderful, precious, savory ramen! He nodded quickly and they both entered the apartment building.

________________________________________________________________________

_Next Morning_

_Water Style: Water Stream Jutsu!_

Revenge felt great to little Naruto. Nagato had to wake up early every morning to take care of Naruto, but today he was sleeping in late. Naruto had decided to wake him up with his own style. Of course Naruto still hadn't gotten any better at it, and once more the blast that hit Nagato resembled that of a fire hose. Nagato's entire bed was now soaked with water. Nagato was distracted from the events from last night and he failed to set an alarm for the morning, which was why he hadn't woken up already. And now he was _pissed._

He immediately sat up, in a white t-shirt with an orange spiral in he middle and comfortable white shorts, and with one hand he formed the half-ram seal (A/N ram seal with only one hand, where you stick you index and middle finger upwards together while you hold your other fingers with your thumb.) With his other hand, he pointed his palm at Naruto, his Rinnegan activated. He shouted one of his favorite jutsus,

_Bansho Tenin! _

Naruto, who was all the way across the room now, trying to escape, was immediately lifted up in the air, as if Nagato's hand was somehow holding him from the far distance. The Namikaze clan was famous for the two gravitational techniques that had been developed by them: _Bansho Tenin_, which gave the user gravitational control to lift an object up in the air using chakra, the bigger the object the more chakra needed to use it,and _Shinra Tensei_, which was a forceful repel. With it the user could repel any object or attack no matter what the mass or size of the object. Nagato, being the prodigy that he is, was able to master both techniques by the age of 12.

While Naruto was still being held in the air by an invisible force, Nagato flicked his wrist and the windows of the room flew upon. He turned to Naruto, who was swinging his arms around in the air, trying to get down again. To Naruto, he felt was as if he was weightless, floating in the air. Nagato was also experienced in the technique and holding Naruto up with his chakra required no effort. A noticible glow of blue chakra was glowing around his Naruto's body. "Naruto-otouto," he said in a calm voice. "Today we will work on your ninjutsu, but until then, you are forbidden to use that _Water Style _jutsu, understood?" he asked. Naruto never had the chance to respond because Nagato never gave him one. Still forming the half-ram seal, he shouted: _Shinra Tensei!_

_  
_Naruto was immediately forcefully repelled out the window, audibly crashing to the ground outside. They were on the second floor after all. With that done, Nagato began to dress in his normal ninja attire, which was the ANBU training gear.

________________________________________________________________________

_Training Grounds, Later_

Nagato and Naruto were at the same training grounds as yesterday. The waterfall was still flowing freely in a continuous cycle. It was a truly beautiful morning. The fresh air smell was currently in the air.

The two Naruto clones that were standing next to the original pathetically fell to the ground. They didn't even look like him! Naruto once again was furious that he was unable to perform a simple bunshin technique. Nagato nodded his head in understanding. He decided to explain to Naruto today why he was having trouble performing some simple jutsus.

"Naruto," he explained. "Because of your 'special situation' you have a massive chakra circulatory system." Naruto showed a face of confusion. He was curious as to what a chakra circulatory system was. Naruto never did pay attention well when it came to this sort of stuff. Nagato had been training him academically as well, and he was still improving. As for his 'special situation', Nagato had told him that there was something special about him, which was why the villagers hated him. Nagato said that he would explain it to him later when he was ready for it.

Nagato sighed before he explained more. "You have a lot of chakra…" A light bulb went on in Naruto's head and he understood. But he was still confused. "Nii-san, if I have a lot of chakra, then why can't I perform the technique?" he asked his older brother.

Nagato responded. "No, Naruto, you don't understand. You have a _lot _of chakra. You've probably got more than a Jonin and you're only 6-years-old now. By the time ninja reach the rank of Jonin, they know how little chakra it takes to perform a bunshin. By then they know how to limit their chakra to perform the technique. This will be different for you." Nagato explained, "So I will teach you a new technique, one that is forbidden for most but just right for you."

Naruto jumped up and down with excitement. The closest Nagato had ever trained him regarding his chakra was control exercises. Sometimes they would spend entire afternoons just sitting down meditating and working with chakra. Naruto was getting a lot better with chakra now, which is why he was able to walk on water and climb walls with his chakra.

But now they would be learning real jutsu! A forbidden one too!

Nagato continued to explain. "There is only one seal for this jutsu. Watch carefully." With his left hand, Nagato formed the tiger-seal and he did the same with his right hand, except he adjusted his right hand to form a cross with his left hand.

Naruto who was watching did the same. "Alright Naruto, good job," Nagato said. "This is the hand-seal for the _Kage Bunshin _technique." He continued to explain to Naruto. "The 'Shadow Clone' technique will allow you to create exact replicas of yourself, just like a bunshin. But these replicas will be solid!" Naruto nodded as he followed along. "This technique is forbidden because of the amount of chakra that is required to perform the technique. It will divide the user's chakra into whatever is needed to make the clones, which could eventually kill the user with extreme chakra depletion. But due to your 'special situation', I doubt you will have any problems with this.

"Force chakra through the hand-seals and then perform the technique the way the hand-seals formed them." Nagato showed Naruto the result and a shadow clone of Nagato appeared next to them. Naruto nodded again and forced an extreme amount of poorly formed chakra through his hands and produced two sickly versions of himself.

Nagato sighed as the clones ran off into the bushes and began to make retching noises.

"Alright Naruto, we will be working with this until Itachi comes." Nagato said.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Naruto dropped to his knees in exhaustion, with a smile on his face. After working with this jutsu for 2 hours he had managed to make 10 solid clones of himself. Nagato was really proud, and he began to explain more to Naruto.

"Naruto listen up," he began. "The Kage Bunshin has another special attribute to it. Whatever your clone experiences in its lifetime will be passed on to you when it disperses, do you understand?" Naruto frowned as he thought about it. Nagato sighed again. "It would be better if I showed you. Use your chakra to create just one clone." Both of them did so. The clone of Nagato turned to the clone of Naruto and said, "Naruto clone, come with me"

The two clones began to run off into the village. Naruto became bored as they waited for the clones to return. Suddenly, he started laughing as the memories of the clone came back to him.

Nagato managed to smirk as well as his clone's memories came back. He turned to Naruto. "So, tell me what happened to the clones Naruto." Naruto stopped laughing and responded, "We went into the Hokage's office and threw a bunch of eggs at him! Oh, the look on the guards face's as the Hokage was covered in eggs…!" Naruto fell over and began laughing again.

When he got up he turned to his brother who was smiling.

Itachi had thought it was funny as well. "Nagato, you and Naruto are always causing trouble." Naruto, of course, was surprised at the random entrance of his friend and fell over again.

________________________________________________________________________

_Park, Later_

Naruto ran circles around Nagato as they walked to the park. Nagato sighed as he spoke to his brother. "Naruto, were just going to the park to meet Itachi's younger brother, Sasuke…" Naruto didn't listen. He was too happy at the thought of making a new friend. He could count all of his friends on his one hand, and just thinking about meeting another got him really excited. Nagato, Itachi, and Konan were his friends, as well as Kakashi-niisan, who visited every now and then. Also, the owner of the ramen shop was pretty nice to him as well…

When they arrived at the park, the duo saw Itachi leaning against a tree, with a young boy next to him. In Naruto's opinion, the boy looked exactly like Itachi, only younger. Naruto ran forward and introduced himself. "Hi, Itachi," he greeted before he walked around him to the boy who looked his age. "Hi! My name is Naruto, what's your name!" The boy smiled at him and introduced himself as well while he pointed his thumb at his forehead. "I'm Sasuke Uchiha. Want to play with me?" Naruto nearly squealed in excitement. Another boy his age who wanted to play with him?! The two ran off to the playground and began to play around together.

Nagato walked up to his friend, Itachi. "Well that was a lot easier than I expected," he proclaimed, "Sasuke is a lot different than we were. Here I was thinking that Naruto would have to whoop his ass in a sparring match before they became friends. I think this way is better." Nagato laughed at Itachi. Itachi had a serious look on his face. He closed his eyes and spoke to Nagato.

"Nagato, there is said to be four ways to activate the Mangekyou Sharingan. Shisui and I have been researching this topic for quite some time now. Once we find a way to activate the ultimate Sharingan, then I will fight you, and I will…"

Nagato had lost interest in the conversation and was sitting on a bench, talking with Konan, who had apparently been waiting at the park for them. Itachi fumed in anger as he realized he was talking to himself and he jumped back to the Uchiha compound to get _his _girlfriend.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Things were going well with the two young boys who were playing together. They shared a lot in common, mostly that they trained to be great shinobi, and that they were hard workers. They had just finished playing around the park and they had decided to play 'ninja' with the other kids. These were the kids who normally avoided Naruto, but once they saw Sasuke playing with him, they guessed that he was alright. They allowed the two to join their group.

The game consisted of all of the children playing pretending to be ninja. It was really more like a game of tag. Whoever was 'it' had to throw light wooden shuriken at the other children. Whoever was hit became 'it', and once you were 'it', you had to throw the shuriken at whoever wasn't it. The kids gave Sasuke and Naruto a bunch of wooden shuriken, and then began the game. Since the two kids just came, they were 'it'.

What happened next was the fastest game of 'ninja' the kids have ever played. Both Naruto and Sasuke eliminated all of the children in a matter of minutes, finding them and hitting them with the shuriken. They weren't 'it' for the rest of the day.

Nagato meanwhile was enjoying his company with Konan, while Itachi had returned with his girlfriend. She was a pretty Uchiha kunoichi who was a year younger than him.

Nagato turned to Konan and spoke to her. "Konan, let's go to the Hyuuga compound and see if you can get that girl to come and train with Naruto and Sasuke. Itachi, you supervise the training between Naruto and Sasuke." With that, he and Konan stood up and began to walk away together.

________________________________________________________________________

_Training Grounds, Later_

Itachi stood alone with his brother and Naruto at their training ground. Itachi was impressed as he looked at the waterfall in the center of the large training ground. It was…massive. "Naruto," he spoke to his little friend, "show me what you do to train everyday with Nagato. Sasuke will then join you."

As Naruto began to explain the procedure, Itachi paled. The endurance training the Nagato made Naruto go through was…frightening. He knew that Sasuke would be unable to complete it. _He _would have to strain himself to complete it. Damn that Nagato for training to hard…

"Naruto, why don't you go through it _slowly_ with Sasuke?" The two boys were thrilled. Naruto would have someone to do the course with him! Sasuke would be able to train and then become stronger than his brother!

The two ran over to the back of the earth wall where the training started. Upon seeing the back of the wall, Naruto stopped and turned to Sasuke. "Um, Sasuke," he questioned the boy who was nearly jumping with excitement. "Do you know how to climb walls with chakra?" Nagato had told him that it was a skill for Genins to learn, and if Sasuke didn't know how to do it then…

Sasuke laughed. "Of course!" Naruto laughed as well. "Then let's start!" Naruto took off his shirt, and Sasuke followed example. They both began to walk up the wall, slowly, pushing chakra into their feet. It took a few minutes before they reached the top of the large plateau-like wall. About half-way through Sasuke began to realize about how tall the wall was. While most children would have pissed themselves if they looked down while walking up the wall, Sasuke became more excited.

Once they reached the top, Sasuke looked at the immense mud-filled area on top of the wall. "Wow!" he shouted in enthusiasm. Naruto stepped into the mud, and together they waded through the top of the earth wall. Itachi was now watching from the pillar of earth where Nagato usually sat on top of the wall. He was impressed that Sasuke was able to go through with the training.

After the two boys waded through the water, they walked to the edge of the cliff, walking on top of the flowing water. Naruto turned to Sasuke who was beginning to show his first signs of fear. "Now we dive over the waterfall. Make sure to cover your body with chakra otherwise when you hit the water it kinda hurts…" Sasuke gulped and nodded. He had dived in the lake in his back-yard, but from up here the lake looked more like something as big as his hand.

Naruto was pumped. "You ready? We'll jump on three! One. Two! Three!!!" Naruto leapt over the wall, with and unwilling Sasuke behind him. He would prove himself to his brother! If he couldn't dive over a waterfall, then how could he ever overcome his brother and impress his father?

The fall was long, but like Naruto said, it didn't hurt to hit the water when he covered his body with chakra. That's not to say he didn't scream a little while they were falling.

When the two surfaced Sasuke was about to have a heart-attack. His body was now pumped full of adrenaline. Naruto spoke to his partner. "Now we swim across the lake. Don't use chakra though! This is supposed to test our muscles!"

With that said, the two swam across the lake. When they reached the end, Sasuke was exhausted. He turned to Naruto. "W-What's…next?" he asked through panting. Naruto responded. "We run back across the water and then up the waterfall, and when we reach the top we…"

Sasuke was baffled. "Up the waterfall?!" That was insane! But if Naruto could do it, then so could he! A few months ago, Sasuke wouldn't even have been able to make it half way up the wall, but with his own brother's intense training, he had dramatically improved. His brother had finally been giving him the attention that he always wanted.

It took Sasuke several tries of running and then falling down the waterfall, but eventually, he made it too the top. He fell over in exhaustion of having to repeatedly sprint up the waterfall, which was extremely different. Naruto pumped his fist in his hand. "Right! Now all we have to do is run across the mud and then zip-line down the wall. This part is probably the easiest when you don't have nii-san using genjutsu on you." The last few times Naruto went through this part of the training, it went particularly hard. Nagato sometimes overdid it a little as one time in the genjutsu he made the three-tailed turtle demon appear in the muddy swamp. Naruto had difficulty getting across… Another time he made the genjutsu so that when Naruto went in a free-for-all sprint to the zip-line it seemed as if a volcano was erupting behind him. Naruto barely made it to the zip-line in time before the lava burned everything in sight. Whenever he landed at the bottom of the zip-line, Nagato would cancel whatever illusionary technique had been placed on Naruto. That's not to say that there weren't times when Naruto didn't make it through, and get caught by the genjutsu. When this happened, his would suddenly appear behind the earth mountain and have to start over again. It was sort of like a game, where if he died in the genjutsu he would have to 'start over' again.

Sasuke took the second zip-line behind Naruto and jumped down behind him. Together, with Naruto in front, they slid down the long zip-line. Sasuke had to force chakra in his hands, which was necessary, so that he wouldn't fly off the handles. This part was scary!

When they reached the bottom Sasuke immediately collapsed and nearly puked from the ride. Naruto was on his knees helping his newly made friend. Itachi stood by them, truly impressed that his brother was able to keep up with Naruto.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of the Hyuuga Compound_

It was a warm late evening and the sun was soon to complete its eternal journey across the sky.

Nagato and Konan were talking together as they left to get something to eat.

"Konan-chan," he said to his close friend, wanting to start a conversation. He only used the 'chan' suffix when they were alone. "It's seems that Hiashi has come to agreement with us and will allow us to train his daughter."

She giggled at how serious he always seemed to be. She reached out her hand, slightly blushing, and took hold of his hand as they walked together. "This is just the beginning! Even though we're only 16-years-old and in the ANBU, we will soon settle down as Jonin and take on our own Genin team! Imagine how that will turn out…"

Nagato sighed. "My team of course would be the strongest. Naruto would probably be in it, with Sasuke and some other girl. Maybe even the Hyuuga we're about to train. Then Itachi, of course, would train his team with the sole intention of making his Genin stronger than mine. Your Genin of course would grow to be strong as well." She blushed at his praise. "In the end, we would create the strongest Genin teams in the history of Konoha, even stronger than we were, and come time for the Chunin exams we…"

Konan was holding on to his shoulder for support, laughing hysterically. He sighed again. He sure had been sighing a lot recently…

Konan calmed herself and after Nagato continued to stare at her she explained why she was laughing. "Here I was thinking about how serious you try to be, and then you go and completely and specifically answer a rhetorical question!" She giggled again. Nagato sighed again, but at her giggling he allowed himself to smile.

She looked up to him. She loved it when he gave one of his true smiles. He used to be more carefree, but after his parents died and the Kyuubi was sealed in Naruto all in the same night, he changed. It was relieving in a way to see him relax every once in a while.

Together the two ate dinner at a nice restaurant together, speaking of how training the young Hyuuga heiress would go.

After the meal, Nagato and Konan sat on a bench in the nearby park, enjoying each other's company. It was peaceful outside, and the moonlight shone upon both of their faces.

Nagato, however, was not peaceful as he had a burning question that had been on his mind recently. He turned to look at his friend sitting next to him.

"Konan," he began. She turned to look at him as well. "Last night, when I was about to go home, you…kissed me. Why?"

Konan looked into the eyes of her closest friend. Nagato was a genius in just about everything he did. He even was proud to say that he could read every emotion of his best friends because they were so close together. Konan agreed with him, except for one aspect. He was completely clueless when it came to romantics. How could she say this to him? How could she confess her love without ruining their friendship?

But she needed to say this. She couldn't go on without saying. She looked deep into his eyes as she decided just to tell him as simply as possible.

"Well that's easy Nagato," she began to explain. "I kissed you that night because I love you," she clearly said while still looking at him.

Nagato looked at Konan once more like he had seen her for the first time. Love…

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Day, Hyuuga Compound_

6-year-old Hinata Hyuuga had woken up eagerly. She had not slept well that night, as she was too excited to peacefully fall asleep. Yesterday her father had sternly told her that she had been chosen to become trained by the renowned Konan Hyuuga! Konan was the pride of the Hyuuga, and while only a branch member, she was part of the Legendary Three, who were becoming more famous than the Sannin! But why her? Her skills had always been lacking, and while her father never mentioned it to her she thought so. Her mother believed differently. She had always been kind to her and encouraged her, and also kept her father 'in check' all the time. She was the only one who was able to soften up Hiashi Hyuuga, Hinata's father and head of the Hyuuga Clan. Hinata loved her mother very much as she was one to always make others feel better, which was the type of person the young Hyuuga needed.

Today Hana Hyuuga was going to take her daughter to the park and enjoy some time outside of the Hyuuga compound.

Hinata had never been a social one, and was shy around everyone. Hana had thought that it was because of her growing up in the cold, 'Hyuuga Environment", as she put it. But whenever she took the young heiress out to the park she would never go and play with the other children. Her father was a born leader and she herself was very confident. How had her daughter become so shy? She laughed to herself as she thought about Hinata. Oh, that girl was a mystery.

Hinata, after eating a breakfast prepared for her by her mother, left the compound with her to enjoy the morning before she would have to meet Konan-sensei. She was extremely nervous as she walked along side her mother to the park. What if she wasn't good enough for her new sensei? What if her sensei didn't like her? Would she ever be good enough? Hinata visibly saddened.

When they entered the park, Hana took a moment to enjoy the beauty of it. It was quite large; there was a big section for where the kids could play, a section with a large lake a trees nearby where one could have a picnic, a section of benches where one could sit and relax, and more. It was truly beautiful. There was even a large fountain in the middle!

As she was walking down a trail to the park section with benches, with Hinata hiding behind her for some reason or the other, she saw a man walking toward the area with bright orange hair, followed by a boy with bright yellow hair. They were a strange duo and they earned themselves a few mean glares as they walked by. Both of them seemed not to even to notice extra attention they were receiving.

Hana Hyuuga was no fool, and she immediately recognized the two. Who couldn't, after all? The one with bright orange hair that wildly stood up on his head was Nagato Namikaze, known by her to be the son of the recent Yondaime Hokage, peace be with his soul. He was also a renowned shinobi known around the villages for his skills and was the team leader of the Legendary Three, known to be stronger than the Sannin themselves. He was particularly famous around Konoha as being the brother of the 'demon child', who of course was the small yellow-haired boy walking next to him, laughing about something.

She was unsure about what to think of the yellow-haired-boy. He was the second born son of her friend, the Yondaime, rest his soul, and though many called him a demon she had never met the boy and did not know what to think of him. Well, this would be the perfect time to find out. She walked over in their direction, with Hinata close behind, still hiding for no apparent reason.

Nagato, being ever the prodigy, instantly noticed the duo approaching them. One was clearly a Hyuuga just because of the graceful and elegant way she walked, and because of her dark blue hair color and her pale pupil-less eyes. Well, that's what most people said about the Hyuuga eyes, but Nagato disagreed. How could one see without pupils? He concluded that their pupils happened to be the same color as the rest of their eyes, which is why people where unable to see them.

Ah, she seemed to be Hana Hyuuga, wife of the head of the Hyuuga Clan, he noticed as she come closer. And that must be her daughter hiding behind her, the one that he would soon be training.

Naruto continued to talk to him about whatever he was talking about for the last minute, and concluded with: "Nagato-niisan, when are we gonna learn more ninjutsu?" he asked his older brother. Nagato sighed in response. "Naruto, most kids your age wouldn't care. Why don't we just enjoy some _non-training _time bonding at the park?" Naruto pouted and crossed his arms.

When the pair of Hyuuga's approached them, Nagato started off by being polite.

"Good morning Hyuuga-sama." he stated to the oldest of the group. She smiled and nodded her head in response. "Good morning Namikaze-sama." she responded in a friendly way.

Nagato shrugged off the respective name. "Please drop the 'sama'. I never liked respectful endings and it makes me feel old." He smiled at her.

Hana once more curiously looked at the Namikaze. This was supposed to be one of the most powerful ninjas in the village, in the world! Yet he seemed so relaxed and comfortable, yet serious at the same time. Perceptive is a good word for him. Yet he also seemed… bored? How could this possibly be one of the Legendary Three?

While she puzzled over the mystery that is Nagato, Naruto shrugged the woman off as she had yet to greet him. Suddenly, he saw some movement behind her. He walked around her to see what it was. Lo and behold he stumbled upon Hinata, who was clutching to her mother as if she was standing before the Kyuubi itself.

"Hey! I'm Naruto!" he kindly greeted to her, to get her attention.

In response, she yelled 'eep!' and dove deeper behind her mother, if possible.

Hana Hyuuga nearly stumbled as her daughter almost tackled her, and she turned around to her. "Hinata dear, be polite and introduce yourself."

Hinata faced Naruto but stared at the ground and pushed her index fingers together as she spoke to our favorite yellow-haired kid. "H-H-Hello I-I-I'm H-H-Hinata H-Hyuuga," she barely managed to stumble out.

"Cool!" Naruto yelled out in response. "Wanna go play?" he innocently asked the young girl.

Hinata was shocked. Play?! No one had ever asked her to 'play' before. In fact, she had never 'played' with any other children! She was just too shy. What if they didn't like her? What if she didn't know how to play? What if she was no good at playing and brought shame to her family? Thoughts like these plagued her life every since she could remember. But now this boy was asking _her _to play!

She looked up to her mother with hopeful eyes. Hana laughed a little as she watched the scene before her. She smiled and nodded and response to Hinata and in turn Hinata nodded at Naruto. Naruto jumped up in the air with enthusiasm. "Yay!" he yelled. He took her hand and ran off to the see-saw first. He had always wanted to try that with someone his age. Sasuke and him never got to it, and Nagato had tried but he was too big and Naruto would always be thrown into the air. But now he could! This was great!

Hinata was busy blushing at the sudden hand contact to think properly.

Hana turned to Nagato in hopes of explaining her daughter's behavior. "She's really shy, and because of it she doesn't have any friends," she explained. "She never has the courage to ask anyone to play with her, or join a group."

Nagato nodded, barely paying attention. "Naruto doesn't have any friends either, but for different reasons," he explained with a frown. "Perhaps they will be good for each other. I'm sure they will meet again though, as Konan will soon become her sensei and we all train together."

Hana nodded in understanding.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Naruto and Hinata had been having the times of their lives. Naruto was actually playing with a friend, and he was having a great time! For Hinata, she was enjoying herself even more than Naruto. She was having so much fun just playing at the park with someone her age, and he was so nice to her…

Nagato called out to the two to come back to them. They ran over to Nagato and Hana who were sitting on a bench talking about something.

Wow, the time had gone fast! It was nearly lunch time! To Hinata, it felt just like they had began playing! She didn't want to leave yet, but she knew she had to go and meet her sensei and begin her training. She wondered if Naruto would like her anymore if he knew that she was somewhat powerful…

Hana stood up and walked over to the two. Nagato had remained seated, as he found more interest in the clouds above them than meeting Hinata.

"Say goodbye to your friend Hinata, it's time to go prepare for your training." Hana said to her little daughter, who was at the moment slightly blushing and pushing her fingers together.

Naruto was shocked. He turned to Hinata. "Hey Hinata…am I your friend now?" he eagerly asked her. Hinata once more looked up to her mother with hopeful eyes. Hana smiled and nodded down to her. Hinata quickly turned to her new friend and repeatedly nodded her head in rapid succession.

Naruto jumped up and yelled in excitement. Wow! Another friend? This was amazing! He looked at his hand and counted off: _Nagato-niisan, Konan-neesan, Itachi-niisan, Kakashi-senpai, Sasuke, Hinata… _He stared in amazement at all of the fingers that he was holding up. Incredible! He had never imagined that he would need not one but _two _hands to count off his friends! He turned and ran to his brother who had somehow managed to fall asleep on the bench. "Nii-san!" he yelled, shaking his brother's shoulders. Nagato merely opened his eyes. "Do you think Hinata can come over and play with me sometime?" he hopefully asked his brother. Nagato sighed for the millionth time and responded. "Sure." With that, he fell back to sleep. One needed as much sleep as one could afford when being the sensei of Naruto. You never knew when he would come to you, asking you to train…

Hinata was overjoyed upon hearing the news. As she and her mother said good-bye to Naruto, she walked back home, nearly skipping in joy. This was fairly amusing to see for her mother, who had noticed that Hinata had come to the park nearly in tears, and now she was jumping in enthusiasm.

"Hinata," she asked her daughter who was happily humming. "How did you like your time with Naruto?"

Hinata seemed to look nervous while she responded. As usual, she pushed her index fingers together…and was she blushing?

"H-Hai. I-I like him," she responded to her mother. "He's nice, and funny, and h-he m-makes me h-happy," she truthfully answered.

Hana had no doubt about it now. Hinata was blushing. She was always nervous around other boys her age, but she never blushed. Hmmm, she thought

________________________________________________________________________

_Training Grounds, Later_

Naruto was jumping around, happier than usual. His occasional cries of joy would fill the air with the roar of the nearby waterfall. Konan thoughtfully frowned as she prepared the picnic. She turned to Nagato, who was once again sleeping against a nearby tree.

"Nagato!" she yelled playfully to him. He moved not an inch, and opened his eyes. She continued. "Why is Naruto so happy today?" she asked him. Nagato sighed. "He has a new friend." Unwilling to continue the conversation, he fell back to sleep. A shinobi could never have enough sleep. You never knew when you would have to use up all your energy and train Naruto…

Konan sighed at her teammate's laziness. Itachi's personality of laziness seemed to be rubbing off on him.

When she finished preparing her picnic, she called Naruto over to her and told him to wait for her return. "I'm going to pick up our guest now, so sit here, and don't eat anything!" she chided him like an older sister might. "And remember to behave when my new student arrives. While she is your age, I need to make a good first impression on her!"

Naruto smiled and nodded. He was curious as to who it would be that Konan had decided to train. Most Hyuugas, in his opinion, were cold and distant and emotionless. They are the type of ninja who wouldn't laugh if they saw the Sandaime Hokage getting pummeled with eggs. He snickered at the re-surfaced memory. He hoped this new student wouldn't be so bland and emotionless…

"Don't worry Konan, I'll keep and eye on Naruto," Itachi said, appearing out of no where and ruffling Naruto's hair. Konan laughed and turned to walk away as Naruto screamed at the sudden appearance of Itachi, and Nagato slept through all of it while sleeping a few feet away.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

After a failed assassination attempt on Itachi, Naruto sat down and pouted as he waited for Konan to return. He was soooo hungry, and Itachi was eating food right in front of him! Every time Naruto would try to steal some of the prepared food, Itachi would take his hand and throw him all the way into the nearby lake of the waterfall. This happened about three times, with Naruto being creative. Once he sent a shadow clone (he finally got the hang of the technique!) in a henge looking like Konan, telling Itachi that it was time to eat. Itachi activated his Sharingan and sent Naruto into a genjutsu full of burning ramen. Kuso!

Suddenly Itachi stuffed the remainder of his roll in his mouthed and quickly swallowed it. He gathered a bunch of bread crumbs that he had made and threw them at Naruto. Naruto looked on in confusion at the sudden action.

Just then, Konan walked into the clearing with a small girl behind her, hiding for no apparent reason. When she walked over and looked at the food all over Naruto, she sent him a quick death glare. Itachi was innocently smiling.

"Alright everybody, it's time to introduce yourself to my new student and our soon-to-be friend." Konan announced. She turned to Hinata who was clutching her from behind in attempts to hide herself. Naruto was really curious as to who the new student was. Itachi couldn't care less. Nagato was peacefully sleeping and enjoying the few and rare moments that he wasn't training Naruto.

Konan lightly pushed Hinata in front of her. Hinata stared at her feet in a nervous habit. Here she was standing before the Legendary Three! They were the most renowned ninja in Konoha! And she was just a shy little Hyuuga that…

Hinata was interrupted from her depressing thoughts. "Hinata?!" Naruto asked, bewildered at the sight of his newly made friend.

She was just as shocked as she looked up for the first time to see _her _newly made friend.

"N-Naruto-kun!" she yelled out, happy to see him here and embarrassed to have added the 'kun' suffix out loud.

At her saying 'Naruto-_kun_', Itachi raised an eyebrow, now interested in the conversation. Nagato opened his eyes, sat up and gave his full attention to the newcomer.

Hinata now gave an 'eep!' to the attention that she was receiving that the wanted to avoid.

Konan gave a light giggle and walked next to the shy young girl. "Let's all sit down together and introduce ourselves before we eat, okay?"

As the five sat on the picnic rug that was placed on the floor, Konan took out the prepared food in the baskets. Hinata sat by herself until Naruto stood up and sat next to her, much to her pleasure.

When the food was prepared, they all uttered 'ikadakimasu' and began to slowly eat. Konan began by introducing herself. It wasn't really necessary, because they all were pretty famous, even Naruto being a jinchuuriki. But she did anyway. "Alright, how about we all introduce ourselves," she recommended to the group. She was responded with silence, well, except Naruto eating. She sighed and sweat-dropped.

"Alright then, I'll start!" she offered to the group. "My name is Konan Hyuuga, and I am of branch family member of the Hyuuga Clan," she began. "I like training to become a strong kunoichi and spending time with my friends, Nagato-kun, Itachi-kun and Naruto-kun. I also like cooking. I dislike families being separated, like how the Hyuuga Clan is separated into two families," she explained. Hinata, who was sitting on her knees, quickly nodded her head in agreement. Konan continued. "My dream is to grow old and become a strong shinobi with Nagato-kun and Itachi-kun, and to watch Naruto-kun grow up and become a powerful Hokage." Naruto blushed a little at the praise and put his hands behind his head. "My hobbies are being a shinobi, and well… cooking I guess. Oh! And being an older sister to Naruto!" she finished. Konan expectantly looked at Nagato. Nagato sighed and began his introduction.

"My name is Nagato Namikaze, head of the Namikaze Clan. I like training, I guess, though not nearly as much as Naruto-otouto. I too like spending time with my friends. And I like ramen as well, though not as much as Konan's cooking." She blushed at the praised. Nagato went on. "I like learning new jutsu and being a leader. I dislike fools who judge people before they get to know them, as well as arrogant fools who don't have any respect for their opponents. My dream is to…well all I worry about now is raising Naruto-kun like a good brother. My hobbies are training myself and Naruto," he finished. Hinata nodded as she took all of his personal information in. It was nice how he cared for his brother…

Itachi went next without being told to. "I'm Itachi Uchiha. I like a lot of things, while at the same time I dislike a lot of things as well. I especially hate those who think that they are superior just because of what clan they are from, or what bloodline limit they posses. I will become strong, obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan and then utterly defeat Nagato in combat." Itachi just stopped there as if he lost interest in continuing and he stared up at the sky.

Naruto jumped up and went next. "My name is Naruto Namikaze! Remember that name! I like ramen, Konan-neesan's cooking, my precious people and training! I dislike arrogant people as well as shallow people who are unable to think anything through. I'm gonna grow up and become the strongest Hokage and protect all my people and all those precious to me! My hobbies are training and going to the park every now and then with Nagato-niisan and Konan-neesan." Konan blushed at the comment of her cooking.

Hinata understood Naruto's dream, and she hoped that he accomplished it. She was curious though… "Naruto-kun, who are your precious people who you wish to protect?" she asked him, now that he was seated again.

Naruto smiled at her. "All those who accept me and mean something to me. Nagato-niisan, Konan-neesan, Itachi, Kakashi-senpai, and now Sasuke. Oh! And now you are one of my precious people as well, Hinata!"

At this the young girl blushed a deep red that but Konan's to shame, who was still attempting to stop blushing.

The group later began to eat their lunch and they enjoyed their time together.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Hinata had surprisingly fit in well with the group of close friends, and soon it felt like she belonged with them. Hinata had paled when she heard of the training that Naruto had to go through, and what she would be starting soon. First she had to control her chakra better and learn how to use it to walk on water and up trees. As she and Konan were working with her Jyuuken, Naruto and Itachi were practicing with their kenjutsu. Nagato was watching nearby on a tree branch, when a visitor stopped by. Kakashi Hatake, dressed in his ANBU outfit minus the mask, appeared on the same large branch as Nagato. He slumped down with his back against the tree trunk and he pulled out one of his orange books, after saying "Yo."

Nagato turned to the 20-year-old copy ninja, and greeted him. "Kakashi, it's been a few weeks since we last saw each other, what's up?" Kakashi groaned in response. "I just got back this morning from a 2 week long mission as an ANBU captain. A new ninja was put under my command recently and he went on the mission with me. His name is Tenzou." Kakashi reported while his eyes were still on his book. Nagato nodded his head in understanding. Tenzou was known in the village as the only _Wood _or _Nature _style user. He was a formidable ninja known in the bingo book.

As the two old friends enjoyed their company, Kakashi decided to catch up on how Naruto was doing. Nagato was proud to tell his friend how much his little brother was progressing. Kakashi was impressed when Nagato went over what Naruto knew and what typed of training he had to go through. A little while later, Nagato turned to his friend to ask him a serious question.

"Kakashi," he asked him, "If something were ever to happen to Konan, Itachi and I on a mission or something, I need…"

"Oh don't worry," Kakashi joked, "If any of you broke your fingers I'd be at the hospital with flowers and get-well chocolates."

Nagato shook his head in annoyance. "No. If Konan, Itachi and I were to ever die, or if we were unable to return to Konoha, I want to know if you would watch over Naruto."

Kakashi was currently suffering in a world that was cruel to him. Everyone who was close to him had died, or in Rin's case, disappeared. First his mother had died in battle, his father had taken his own life, Obito had died because of him and his inability to help him, Rin had disappeared and was presumed dead, and then the Fourth Hokage, the last close person to him, died sacrificing himself for the safety of the village. Fate himself had stripped Kakashi of any precious people to him. And now Nagato was offering for him to watch over Naruto?

Kakashi looked up from his book with a serious face.

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Day, Training Grounds_

Naruto, Sasuke and Itachi were at the training ground in the early afternoon, training together. Nagato was off somewhere nearby sleeping or something.

Naruto and Sasuke collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. Sasuke was proud of himself. Keeping up with Naruto was no easy task, but surly enough he was keeping up. He knew that Naruto was never trying his hardest, but he was getting close enough to where Naruto would actually have to try against him in a spar.

Itachi spoke to the two boys. "Alright, no more sparring," he announced. "We have Konan's new apprentice, Hinata, coming over soon. I expect you two boys to behave and such… and…oh Kami what was it that I was supposed to tell you guys?" He looked to the sky as he thought of what Konan had told him. Wow, she could get mean and hurtful sometimes when she was mad! He'd better remember quickly…

Itachi had no more time to think as Konan came walking in the clearing, with Hinata walking beside her this time, holding her hand. Upon seeing Naruto, the little girl once again clutched Konan's side in a death grip. Naruto stood up from the ground where he was sitting next to Sasuke and ran over to his other newly made friend. "Hiya, Hinata!" She stuttered with herself for a moment before she could respond. "H-H-Hello N-Naruto-kun." Her greeting was much less enthusiastic, but it was all the shy little girl could manage. "Hey! Come and meet my other friend, Sasuke!"

At the mention of his name, Sasuke stood up and walked over, smiling. He had no reason to be grumpy, or secluded. His brother was giving him the attention that he had always wanted, and he was becoming strong! He introduced himself to the shy heiress. "Hey, I'm Sasuke Uchiha." Hinata looked up at him and at the smile she was receiving and she felt a little more confidence. "I'm Hinata Hyuuga," she managed to say without stuttering.

Naruto jumped into the air in excitement. "Yay! Now we can train together!"

Itachi lifted an eyebrow up and Nagato rolled over in his sleep, consequently falling out of a tree.

________________________________________________________________________

_One Week Later_

Tenzou had stopped by sometime with Kakashi to meet the legendary Nagato Namikaze. After introducing themselves, Nagato asked the ninja to summon a bunch of trees around in the clearing. Tenzou obliged, and shortly after the training grounds with the waterfall and small mountain was surrounded with trees.

Naruto and Hinata stood alone around the perimeter of the training grounds that now had many trees in it. Naruto had been assigned by Nagato (who was too lazy to train anybody at the moment) to teach Hinata how to use chakra to climb trees, under the pretense that it would help his leadership skills or something.

At the moment Naruto was kindly showing the Hyuuga heiress more tips on how to do it. They had been working on it together for about a week, and the Hyuuga girl was rapidly improving. She had great chakra control, and soon she will have mastered the technique. It turns out that she responds better to _kind _training rather than harsh training and scolding, shame on Hiashi.

Currently the girl had almost made it all the way up the tree. Naruto congratulated her. "Good job, Hinata! You're doing the exercise really quickly. You rock!" Hinata deeply blushed at the praise and prepared to climb the tree again. 'I will impress Naruto-kun,' she thought. 'I have to!' With that she ran up the tree, which was fairly tall and right when she was nearing the top she pushed too much chakra into her feet and she was repelled off of the trunk. The fall that would soon take place was long, and if she were to hit the ground at such a high speed…She screamed as she plummeted to the ground…Only to be caught by Naruto who had jumped up and intercepted her professionally.

She blushed even more as they landed together, Naruto carrying her bridal style. "N-Naruto-kun…" Naruto laughed as he put her down. "I figured that it would probably be better to catch you then letting you fall, like Nagato let me. That really hurt…"

________________________________________________________________________

_One Week Later_

Naruto and Sasuke stood beneath the back of the giant earth wall, where the endurance test began. The crystal zip-line was above them, spiraling down in different patterns. Nagato, Rinnegan activated, was standing next to the two had begun to explain himself. "Right, now that you have done this exercise many times successfully, Sasuke, it's time that you try it with a genjutsu placed on you." Naruto smiled and Sasuke nodded his head. "Alright," Nagato continued as he prepared to teleport on top of the earth wall. "Begin!" With that, he disappeared in an orange flash. Naruto and Sasuke nodded to each other as they jumped onto the earth wall.

________________________________________________________________________

Upon reaching the top, Sasuke nearly quit. Climbing up the wall was a lot harder when boulders were falling from the top and the wall began to crumble whenever you stepped on it. Now it appeared is if the duo were in the middle of the sky, thousands of feet in the air. The harsh wind blew across their faces as Sasuke looked over the edge and discovered that he couldn't even see the ground. He turned to Naruto. "What kind of genjutsu is this?" Naruto laughed in response. "Nagato put us in a genjutsu where he can change reality however much he wants to. This genjutsu is not really meant to hurt the user, as anything in the genjutsu that hurts us is not real and in reality it does no damage to us, mentally or physically. It was made so that the user could change the terrain to whatever fighting style suits them best. For example a water user could place the genjutsu so that the terrain changes to an aquatic landscape, or in the middle of the ocean or something. He is currently teaching me how to use it, and it is the only genjutsu that I know." Naruto was proud that he was able to repeat what his brother had told him when he asked the same question to him. Sasuke nodded his head in approval. He would have to learn this genjutsu as well…

The day that they were currently in was bright outside, and the wind blew across the top of the mountain which now seemed high in the sky. As Naruto and Sasuke made their way through the mud, Sasuke asked his friend a question.

"Naruto, what's your brother going to so now that we are in the mud?" Naruto looked around carefully. "Usually he doesn't do anything to me this time around, only on the free-sprint on the way back. But then again, one time he…" _Boom!...Boom!...Boom!..._

Naruto was cut short as both the boys heard a constant _booming_ that seemed to be getting louder. Each booming noise rattled the entire wall and it made them stumble over. Sasuke was weary of the noise. "What could…" _ROAR!!!_

Sasuke now was cut off as a _dragon_ flew above them and began roaring out fire and liquid magma from its mouth.

Naruto looked on in panic. Nagato had made him study summoning animals and their origins and dragons were among the ancient creatures. But there were many different types of dragons. This one had a long and thin body, and it seemed to be flying without wings, and its body seemed to be made of a burning stone An impressive mane of fire seemed to be coming from behind its head. This could only mean… "Sasuke… that's a SUBTERRANEAN LAVA DRAGON!!" Naruto screamed in panic to his friend. What the hell is a lava dragon doing so high here in the sky, so far away from its natural habitat…? Nagato and his genjutsu…

The dragon turned its rage and attention to the two boys and spit an impressive stream of fire down at them. The dragon itself had a gigantic body, almost as long as the top of the earth wall itself. Its eyes were nearly as big as Naruto's upper body! The fire stream that came out of its body was just as massive. Naruto, thinking quickly, grabbed Sasuke and jumped forward as far as he could. He then dropped his friend. The mud was making it difficult for him to move. "Sasuke, force as much chakra as you can throughout you body and _run_!!!"

Sasuke didn't need to be told twice as the two boys ran through the mud, dodging fireballs and nearly avoiding death many times. When they reached the edge of the cliff where water was flowing down, both of them leaped without hesitation and dove over the cliff…

Only now the cliff was a _lot _higher then it was supposed to be, and the two boys fell through the sky. Sasuke didn't need to be reminded to but chakra in his body to comfort the inevitable crash that would soon take place… which soon did. The two crashed into the water and they seemed to go deep under the water. There was no way that they would be able to make it up in time to breathe…

When Sasuke faced the inevitable and breathed in the water, he was surprised that he didn't choke like he expected to. He turned to Naruto. Somehow he was able to speak underwater. "Sasuke, Nagato knows that we don't know any jutsu yet that would allow us to breathe underwater, so he just let us breathe naturally." He had done this to Naruto before. So the two boys swam through the underwater labyrinth…getting lost in the maze of caves…

________________________________________________________________________

When they finally found the way out, Naruto and Sasuke crawled out onto the dry land as they appeared in the middle of blizzard some where covered in snow. Naruto stood up on his feet and helped Sasuke up as well, who was breathing heavily, clearly exhausted. Naruto tried to encourage his friend. "Come on Sasuke, were half-way done. We can do this!" Sasuke nodded and stood up straight. Doing the endurance training was so much harder when Nagato was controlling the genjutsu.

The two ran across the lake and nothing eventful happened, which Sasuke was glad for. As they ran across the top of the water, they had time to appreciate the scenery. The blizzard had stopped, and it was dark outside. The winter-wonderland in the middle of no where was covered with snow and illuminated with the brilliant northern lights that seem to cover the sky. The night was silent and the only sound present was the sloshing footsteps of the two boys on the water.

When they reached the waterfall, the two boys prepared to sprint their way up. Before they were half way up, they heard a loud growling noise underneath them. When both turned they heads to look at what had made the noise, they wished they hadn't. A giant sea monster had appeared out of the water and had opened its large beak-like mouth showing the rows of teeth within it. Both of the boys nearly pissed themselves. Naruto immediately recognized the monster as the 'Kraken'. Nagato had explained to him that the Kraken was a summoning creature that could only be summoned in a large body of water, and was the most feared sea monster of legends. The summoning contract or jutsu that summoned the beast had long been lost and nobody knew where it lay.

Naruto and Sasuke now had new motivation as they ran up the waterfall. One slip-up, and they fall down to their certain deaths…

Right when they were about to reach the top, Sasuke didn't put enough chakra into his step, and his foot pushed into the water instead of pushing off of it. Just as he was about to fall, Naruto grabbed his hand and threw him up over the waterfall as he himself jumped up as well.

The landscape had changed as they had run up the waterfall, not that either of them had any time to realize it. Now it seemed as if they were somewhere in space. Stars glittered the sky and the same rainbow northern lights seemed to run across the sky here as well. Suddenly the earth wall beneath disappeared and they weren't standing on anything. They could see the crystal zip-line far away in front of them. Just then, an astral projection of a rainbow-colored path appeared before then. Naruto and Sasuke nodded to each other and began to travel down the path. It took a few minutes, as both had decided to walk and conserve their energy. When they finally reached the zip-line, they each grabbed hold of one, and then they slid down…

________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke fell to the ground and stared at Naruto, who was bending over in exhaustion as well. "Your brother…is crazy…" Naruto nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, sometimes. I think he only does it to get back at me though…

________________________________________________________________________

_Three Weeks Later, Uchiha Compound_

Itachi didn't understand why Nagato didn't like his friend, Shisui. Nagato would always say that there 'was something up with him', but he could never say what. Itachi had been friends since Shisui since young, and they had always stuck together.

Now they were underground the Uchiha meeting room, having found a secret passageway underneath one of the tiles. This was it! This had to be where they kept the ancient Uchiha scroll that held the secrets of the Mangekyou Sharingan! As Itachi and Shisui walked down the tunnel together by candlelight, Itachi wondered what secrets would be discovered in the scroll…

________________________________________________________________________

Itachi took the scroll away from his best friend. "I don't believe you, that's impossible!" he said in disbelief. The scroll had said that there were 4 ways to achieve the Mangekyou Sharingan, and each result held a different unique power. The scroll had stated that there were 2 evil ways to get the Mangekyou and 2 pure ways to get the Mangekyou. The quickest way to achieve the ultimate Sharingan was to evil…to kill your best friend. Itachi glanced at Shisui who had a strange look in his faced. He confirmed what the scroll said. But what was special was that the power of the Mangekyou could be transferred between brothers…this was beginning to get interesting. Itachi read on.

________________________________________________________________________

_Several Months Later, Training Grounds_

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata had started training with each other soon after they had been introduced. Now, they acted like a well-oiled fighting machine. Each of them knew about the others abilities and disabilities and they were able to defend each other well. The Legendary Three themselves had to say that they were impressed at the three's teamwork.

Naruto meanwhile had nearly _mastered _the Kage Bunshin technique. He had also learned to use the forbidden S-rank genjutsu that Nagato usually used on him when he was training his endurance, though not to the same extent. For this he was extremely proud of himself. Learning genjutsu had been particularly hard for him, and he was proud to have learned the technique. He had also nearly mastered the basics of taijutsu as well as kenjutsu. Because of this Nagato had given him his own sword. The sword was plain and ordinary with no designs on it. Ninjutsu wise, he had learned how to perform one _Wind _style jutsu, which he began to use nearly as much as his Kage Bunshin technique. He had gotten to the point where he was making the jutsu itself stronger than it was meant to be, similar to what he was doing with the Kage Bunshin technique. No one had imagined that the user would be able to create _so _many copies of himself. As for chakra control, this is the area where Naruto excelled the most. Nagato constantly made him practice his control over his chakra since he had such a large amount. Many times the two brothers would just sit in the field and work with controlling their chakra, swerving patterns within their bodies as if the chakra were a flame. His chakra control was so good that he could already perform a perfect Shushin, which was the body-flicker technique. It allowed one to travel in a straight line at high speeds that the ordinary human would be unable to follow, making it appear as if the user had teleported a short distance. Speed was another strong point with Naruto. After all his endurance training that would make the Green Beast of Konoha put his head down in shame, he was extremely fast, and with his amazing chakra control, Naruto became difficult to spar with, even for Kakashi or Nagato. One could easily forget that Naruto was still 6-years-old, soon to be 7.

Sasuke had nearly progressed as much as Naruto. He was constantly trying to better himself to keep up with Naruto and then eventually his brother. His father immediately noticed his son's progress and had praised him as well! Sasuke, at age 6, had mastered two_ fire _jutsus, as well as several genjutsu that could conceal him as well as confuse the enemy. He had also begun to learn kenjutsu, and though he was not nearly as talented as Naruto at it, he was formidable. His taijutsu, however, was rapidly increasing and soon he would be nearly at the same level as Naruto. The 'copy fist' style of the Uchiha taijutsu was difficult to go against, and Sasuke was excellent at it.

Hinata was truly the one that was improving the most. Well, mostly in her ninja techniques. While she had become more confident with herself, she still found herself unable to look Naruto in the face without stuttering or blushing. Her Jyuuken became impressive, enough that Hiashi, her father had praised her for her skill. She was almost considered to be on the same level of skill as her prodigy-of-a-cousin, Neji, and she hadn't even activated her Byakugan yet! She knew one _water _style jutsu, and was soon to master it. And while her chakra level was no where near as good as Naruto's, it was still impressive for her age. Her new ninja skills were improving at a great rate, enough so that the elders of the Hyuuga Clan began whispering about her more and more, almost like Neji… Outside of her shinobi skills, she had been spending more time with Naruto, occasionally going to his house. The two were bonding well. Also, Konan had decided to teach her how to cook, upon Hinata's request. She had seen how much Naruto-kun enjoyed Konan's cooking, and she thought that if she could cook that well, then Naruto-kun would…he would… Recently her feelings for Naruto had increased more than her skills had. Don't mistake her, she didn't have a silly young school-girl crush on Naruto, she down-right _admired _him. The way he always smiled at her, and encouraged her, and made her feel better, and…and…

She loved him.

She recently had been able to place a word for her feelings toward the yellow-haired boy. She loved him! At the young age of 6! Bless her soul! It was too bad that she was too shy to voice her feelings, and he was so dense that it would take nothing less than her kissing him for him to realize it. It was a shame to, as he was so sharp in everything else, and everyone in the village seemed to know of the girl's infatuation towards Naruto, well, except Nagato. Apparently, he was just as dense as Naruto when it came to romantics. Maybe it ran in the family? He had in the same situation as Naruto, someone loves him, who happens to be a Hyuuga, yet he had no idea. Now, it seems as if he realized it and they slowly began to get closer and closer. One could assume that he loved her too. However, the only difference between Naruto and Nagato in romantics is that Nagato has fan girls.

Currently, Naruto and his two young friends were currently in the woods surrounding the training grounds, and Sasuke was telling them of his plan.

"Now is the perfect time!" Sasuke began. "He would never suspect it!" Naruto nodded his head in agreement. "Alright," he said, "here's the plan then…" Sasuke and Hinata leaned forward as Naruto began to explain.

________________________________________________________________________

Itachi was currently standing in the middle of the training grounds, wondering why he was standing in the middle of the training grounds. What was he supposed to be doing now? Nagato was either napping somewhere or on a date with Konan, only he didn't know it was a date, and Itachi was here…Oh yeah! He was supposed to be supervising the three young ones. Where were they? Maybe he himself had fallen asleep standing while he was supposed to be watching them. He had done it before…

In actuality, Sasuke had used a sleeping genjutsu on his brother, who had been too happy to accept it. It was almost as is he had wanted to fall asleep…Now that he had woken up and the preparations were complete, the three began their plan.

Itachi lifted his arm up and closely inspected it. Since when did he keep an explosive tag on his arm...? Suddenly it hit him and he fully woke up. He didn't have time to think as the tag suddenly exploded.

Naruto frowned thoughtfully as he stood behind a tree. He knew that Itachi was a freakishly powerful shinobi, so he wasn't surprised when the tag didn't defeat Itachi. That's why he planned out many different attacks after one another. Hopefully his 'teammates' would be able to remember and perform their parts right…

________________________________________________________________________

Itachi had substituted with a nearby log and was currently on top of the earth wall with a water-fall, standing on top of the muddy terrain He took a moment and stopped to think as he looked down at the explosion, his Sharingan activated. Thank goodness his brother, Naruto and Hinata were not nearby! But who would want to attack him? He barely had time to substitute himself with log that was on top of the earth wall. Wait?! Why would there be a random log on top of the wall? Someone must have come up here and placed the log here, knowing that he would substitute with it. Then that must mean that…

He was interrupted as the mud around him seemed to have ignited and was rapidly exploding. The only way to escape before the flames reached him would be to…

Itachi jumped high within the air and away from the explosion. He knew doing so would launch him off the wall; it was what he had to do. Suddenly, a blur appeared below and behind him. He was able catch the quick movement with his crimson eyes, and he was surprised to see that the mysterious person had already completed hand-seals and was currently throwing a _Fire _jutsu at him. He frowned as several powerful fire-balls propelled towards him. In a burst of speed he shushined away to his left to avoid the blast. Being able to use Shushin in the middle of the air was an impressive feat as few were able to master it, but Itachi had and he had used it to escape being burned. He didn't have much time to free-fall as another attacker propelled towards him underneath him. All he had time to do was turn around and protect his chest by covering them with his chakra laced arms in hope to block the on comers attack.

Mistake.

As soon as the users palm hit his arms, he realized his mistake as he was painfully hit upward. Jyuuken! Blocking a Jyuuken attack was a big mistake as anyone besides a competent Jyuuken user would not be able to block the special chakra-laced attack. The precision of the attack was impressive, and unless you knew how to parry the attack with your own Jyuuken, you would be disabled.

Itachi didn't have much time as to think upon why a Hyuuga would be attacking him as he was suddenly no longer falling and he had somehow managed to find himself in the middle a large body of water. Underwater. Itachi quickly flew through some hand-seals as he realized that he wouldn't be able to make it to the surface in time. A protective circle of wind then formed around his head as he was able to breathe again. How was he transported to being underwater? Genjutsu? If it was, then how was he not able to see it with his Sharingan? He had little time to prepare as the Kraken itself appeared beneath him and swallowed him.

________________________________________________________________________

Naruto was holding the tiger-seal and deeply concentrating with his eyes closed as he stood on a tree branch. In reality, a large purple sphere of chakra was floating in the air, enclosing Itachi. While it wasn't perfect, it was still able to captured Itachi. If the technique was perfected to its limits, the sphere of chakra would be so hard that no one on the outside would be able to enter it. In Naruto's case, any who entered the sphere would merely fall victim to the genjutsu. While this may be considered good, it was not. In the genjutsu, the user could not harm the victim directly by changing the environment. Doing such would only end the genjutsu. The victim would have to attack the user because the only way to dispel the genjutsu was to defeat the user. The genjutsu would disappear if the user was killed or unable to hold it any longer.

However, if the user created the genjutsu while he or she is out of its perimeter, the victim would only go through a short environment change before being released. Creating the jutsu itself required a Jonin level of chakra at least, and to change it after casting it, it would require even more chakra. It would be foolish to do so, unless the user had a particularly large chakra circulatory system, or some sort of unheard of abnormal secondary chakra.

Hinata and Sasuke were beside Naruto as he opened his eyes, still concentrating on the jutsu. He spoke to his friends. "He is captured in the genjutsu. He will soon be released though, so get ready." He friends nodded and jumped away. As the enormous purple chakra sphere that filled the training grounds slowly began to disappear, Itachi came falling out of it.

To say he was baffled was an understatement. He was just being eaten, and now he was falling through the sky. He roughly landed on the ground, in a heap, as he was still out of it. He survived the large fall be surrounding his body with chakra. He slowly stood to his feet, and prepared his chakra. Whoever his opponents where, they were powerful enough to toy with him. He needed to defeat them as quickly as possible, or else retreat and call upon his teammates for assistance. He noticed a chakra signature far to his left, and he flew through hand-seals.

_Fire Style: Grand Fire-Ball Jutsu! _

_  
_A large fire-ball the size of a small arena erupted from Itachi's mouth towards his enemy. When it died out, it was clear that he didn't hit is opponent. Suddenly, the same Jyuuken user appeared behind him and began attacking him in rapid succession.

But Itachi was prepared this time, and he managed to avoid all the blows. When he jumped back and prepared to attack, he nearly stumbled as he took a glance at his opponent. It was a ninja dressed all in black, with a cloth over his face. His hair was concealed in a hat. But what was shocking was that his opponent wasn't even as tall as his stomach. He was baffled as he searched for an explanation.

Now, another ninja, also masked and dressed in black and possibly the one who cast the genjutsu, was attacking him with a sword. As Itachi evaded the blows, he thought to himself how similar the sword seemed.

He was attacked again in taijutsu combat from behind. Copy-fist? An Uchiha? And why were his attackers so small?!

"_Bansho Tenin!_"

Instantly the fighting stopped as the three enemy ninjas were weightlessly lifted in the air, and were left there to fruitlessly struggle.

Nagato and Konan appeared next to Itachi, not worried in the least. Itachi began his report. "Nagato, these three ninja came and…" Nagato sighed. "I know, we've been watching.

Itachi was again bewildered. Nagato and Konan walked up to the enemy ninja and pulled off their masks, revealing Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke. Itachi was speechless. Nagato was impressed. "You three managed to successfully attack Itachi and give him a hard time, while managing to hide your identities as well and remaining unhurt. Quite impressive. Naruto, your plan almost worked as well. Going against Itachi in one-on-one combat is foolish for the average ninja, but using teamwork, you guys managed to successfully attack him." The three young ninjas blushed, 'hn'ed, and laughed, respectively, at the praise. Nagato continued. "But just as your powers were increased through teamwork, so are ours. You three were easily defeated when us three were working together. Always remember that you will be stronger when working with a well-oiled team. Now let's call it quits and go have lunch." Naruto yelled in excitement and ran off to Ichiraku's, assuming that's were everyone wanted to go. Hinata ran after him. Sasuke, still a little mad that they were unable to defeat Itachi, followed as well. Nagato sighed again. It was hard to believe that the three were ninjas who just attacked Itachi. They were still just little kids!

Nagato turned to his team of a smiling Konan and a sour Itachi. "I believe we would all agree when I say that we've found a team with even more potential than the three of us."

________________________________________________________________________

_Months Later, Uchiha Compound_

Itachi had been walking through the compound in the middle of the day, thinking about what he had discovered in the ancient Uchiha scroll. Not only had he learned about the Mangekyou Sharingan, he had learned the history of the Uchiha clan as well.

There were many details in the scroll that were very…

He understood why the scroll was kept hidden. He doubted more than two elders knew about its location, and he didn't think that they had visited it anytime soon. That's why he took it.

Some secrets in the scroll should be better protected, or destroyed and kept secret forever. He had given the scroll to Nagato to place it in the Namikaze's secret scroll library, which was virtually the best place to hide it.

First of all, no one even knew that the Namikaze Clan had a secret scroll library. Second, no one even knew where the Namikaze Clan compound was. Third, only a Namikaze could enter the library. Fourth, the Namikaze's were experts at sealing. Experts. No one could enter except a Namikaze. No one. It is with seals that they keep their compound hidden and undetected. The library was also impenetrable and hidden because of all the seals placed on it.

Nagato and Naruto, being the only Namikaze's, would be the only ones with access to the scroll, and he could trust both of them. More importantly, if he and Nagato would ever leave the village or die, Sasuke would be unable to learn the secrets unless Naruto allowed him to. And the only reason Naruto wouldn't allow Sasuke to read the scroll was if somehow Sasuke had decided to betray the village and become an avenger, as well as becoming evil.

Naruto was his fool-proof plan. Also, Naruto would be unable to use any of the secrets hidden within the scroll, besides learning about the Uchiha Clan.

Itachi continued to walk in the sunlight as he thought about the scroll. Civilians of the Uchiha Clan were selling and buying at shops nearby. The birds continued to harmonize their melodies of peace and foreshadowing into the air. It was truly a beautiful day.

The scroll had told him that using the Mangekyou Sharingan will in fact not blind the user, unlike the many suspicions Itachi had. For this he was grateful, for now he could still obtain the powerful eyes, though he had not chosen how. Each way was extremely difficult in its own way, and he was unsure of what he should choose.

However, what had interested Itachi the most in the scroll was that the power of the Mangekyou could be passed on through a younger brother. Itachi had immediately thought of his own younger brother, Sasuke. Perhaps if he, Itachi, gained the Mangekyou, he could pass down his powers to Sasuke! There were so many possibilities that could happen if both he and Sasuke obtained the Mangekyou. But how was he supposed to pass on his powers? The scroll had not said, and for this Itachi was furious. Just when he answered his previous questions, only more questions had come up. The scroll had even said that one of the first ninja to ever exist was an Uchiha. This idea, however, was very clouded and it did not have any more information on it. It did say though that this certain Uchiha had been the one who created the Mangekyou Sharingan itself, in its most powerful form. Whether any after him had ever used his technique is unknown.

As he continued to think, Konan had run up to him. "Itachi!" she yelled, still running to catch up with Itachi. She could be seen trying hard not to hit the many people that were walking by, minding their own business. He stopped walking, and turned to wait for his friend to come to him. When she finally did catch up, she told him what was happening.

"Naruto and Sasuke are ready to learn that new technique you had promised to show them! Come on! Everyone is waiting for you!"

Just as Itachi was going to respond, he felt an unbelievably strong chakra power from behind him. He immediately turned, Sharingan activated, to see what could possibly be projecting such a force.

Upon turning around, both he and Konan saw a strange man in a black cloak with red clouds on it standing far away on top of an electrical pole, looming over the compound. However, the strangest feature of the man's outfit was the orange mask with one eyehole in it.

"_Come."_

With that, the mysterious man jumped back from the pole, with Itachi's Sharingan activated, he could see him traveling into the outside forest.

Itachi and Konan were shocked that the man had been able to communicate with them from such a far distance. None of the people walking around the two seemed to have heard him speak, let alone seen him! The voice itself felt…goofy in a way, after looking at his friend Konan, he had seen that she had heard the man as well. He finally concluded that the strange man had spoken in their minds, if possible.

Itachi reacted immediately. "Konan, go and get Nagato, I will follow the man and see where he plans to go. He is an unknown figure that I have never before seen in Konoha, and he could be a threat to our people." Konan nodded and left in a blur. She knew that arguing with Itachi at a time like this was pointless. She also knew that she need not worry for Itachi. Going up against an Uchiha one-on-one as powerful as Itachi was foolish, and she had no doubt that he would be able to hold his own against the figure.

She leapt away quickly to inform Nagato.

________________________________________________________________________

When Itachi had finally caught up with the man, they seemed to be in a large clearing in the middle of the forest, filled with grass. Itachi was standing at a safe distance away from the man, preparing to attack. Tension was building as the light wind blew across the grass.

The man then spoke up with his voice. "Uchiha, Itachi," he seemed to say in a voice almost humorously. Itachi immediately frowned. A man who knew about him and was able to face up against him so relaxed and without fear was either extremely stupid or extremely powerful. After feeling the strange mans powerful chakra, he had to guess the second choice.

The man continued to speak. "I have come back to this village to either kill or collect you and..." He was unable to continue further as Itachi spoke up.

"If you have come with no good intentions, then I will have no problems killing you and asking questions later."

Itachi, with his crimson eyes still activated, pulled out his katana and burst across the clearing at a speed that normal eyes couldn't keep up with.

This enemy didn't have normal eyes.

Just as Itachi was about to complete the process of slicing the man's head off, his arm was somehow stopped right before the blade reached its target.

It took Itachi a moment to realize that his own arm had been caught by the man.

Before Itachi could think anything else, he found himself being thrown across the clearing. After landing hard on the ground a halfway across the clearing, he stood up and prepared a plan to defeat the man, or at least stall him until his team came.

_This guy is fast! _Itachi thought to himself while he prepared to use ninjutsu. He, even with his Sharingan, had been unable to detect the man's movement. Taijutsu was no longer an option. Itachi flew through hand seals at an incredibly speed and sent a giant fireball at his opponent.

"_Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!_"

The man didn't even seem weary of the enormous fireball coming his way. Just as Itachi had thought that the fireball had made contact, the fireball seemed to faze right through him and he appeared to be standing in the same position as before.

Itachi was speechless. Not even Nagato could simply _faze _through his attacks!

The man began laughing, though surprisingly not in a mocking way. He truly seemed to be enjoying himself. "Alright then," he yelled across the clearing, "I guess I'll have to attack you as well. If you cannot survive my attacks, then you will die and I will move on to find someone more powerful in the village!"

Itachi began to worry. The powerful enemy shinobi had come to the village knowing his name, and he spoke in Konan's mind as well as his. Konan and Nagato were surely his next targets! If he were to die and was unable to warn…

Itachi was unable to finish his thought as him enemy began his attack. He merely held up his one hand and formed the half-ram seal, and shouted across the clearing:

"_Mangekyou Sharingan!_"

Itachi was again at a lost for words. Impossible! An Uchiha?! How could there possibly be an unknown Uchiha outside of Konoha?

Itachi was doomed from the start. If this Uchiha could use the _Mangekyou Sharingan_, then he wouldn't stand a chance. Maybe Nagato with his Rinnegan eyes, but not him.

Suddenly, Itachi was very slowly lifted into the air, as if he was being pulled from behind. As he looked behind him, he saw a small portal no bigger than the size of his fist appear in the air directly behind and above him. Reality and the air and grass itself seemed to be distorted as it spiraled in the form of the portal. Itachi was slowly being pulled to the portal, which he was positive wasn't a good thing.

He furiously tried to escape by using shushin and substitution. But he was unable to even move his body below his head. He needed to get out of this now! But how?! Itachi closed his eyes as he faced the inevitable and was about to reach the portal. When he reached the portal, the spiraling design seemed to circle continuously upon his chest. This was it. The enemy across the field pulled up his other hand and formed the tiger seal, just as an orange flash appeared behind Itachi.

"_Bansho Tenin!!_"

Just as the enemy Uchiha was about to complete his technique, Itachi was forcefully pulled out of the distorted area and back further away from the enemy, landing lightly on the ground next to his saviors, Nagato and Konan, though still somewhat disorientated.

Nagato frowned as he looked across to his opponent. Itachi was no pushover ninja; this he knew. Also, genjutsu was Itachi's strongpoint. So then it was impossible that the attack Itachi was about to fall victim to was genjutsu. The Sharingan could detect and cancel genjutsu. Therefore, the ninja had used a time-space jutsu, which were extremely rare and nearly impossible to perform. The Hiraishin was another time-space jutsu, as well as Shinra Tensei and Bansho Tenin, to their own extent. These three jutsus were Nagato's most powerful. If this man was able to use a time-space jutsu, then things were going to become complicated.

Itachi reported what had happened when he seemed to recover from the experience.

"Nagato, Konan, this guy is an Uchiha! He even used the _Mangekyou Sharingan _on me!" Itachi warned his teammates. Nagato nodded his head in understanding. The Mangekyou Sharingan was the Uchiha's ultimate capability. This, Itachi had told him. This man truly was powerful.

Konan nodded as well. She was somewhat scared. If this man had so easily beaten Itachi, then maybe he could… She shook her head as she looked at her partner, Nagato. No one could beat Nagato, not even the Sandaime. As long as she was on Nagato's team, she had no need to worry.

The man laughed again from across the field. "Just my luck! The three people who I am searching for come to me! This is great!"

Nagato narrowed his eyes in preparation. He had no need to interrogate this man. The enemy had attacked his teammate, and that meant death.

Nagato, who already had his Rinnegan activated from using the Hiraishin to teleport to Itachi, pulled out his katana and prepared to use it again. He closed his eyes in concentration, and when he opened them again, he body seemed to glow with an orange chakra surrounding him.

With the seal in his mind, he disappeared from site as he was instantly teleported next to the enemy ninja. Nagato pushed his sword forward to stab the man, only for the sword to disappear through the man, who seemed prepared for the attack. The man simply pushed chakra into his hands and pulled back to punch Nagato, only to have _his _attack faze through air as well, as Nagato was no longer standing in front of him.

The man turned to face the group, Nagato now standing with them. He spoke up as he reached a hand towards his own face. "It seems as if you, Nagato, can perform time-space techniques. You also posses the Rinnegan. This proves to be a problem, as I do not want to waste off too much of my chakra," he proclaimed as he pulled his orange mask off his face. "I haven't had to use both my eyes in a while…Thanks! This will be fun!"

Nagato and Itachi stared in disbelief as he looked at the man without his mask on.

"Obito Uchiha," they said in unison.

________________________________________________________________________

Nagato slowly fell to his knees in pain and exhaustion as he finally submitted to defeat. He turned to his two teammates who were behind him. They were down and out as well, in the same situation as he. As he turned back to his enemy, he gritted his teeth in frustration. How is it that there is someone so powerful that could defeat him and his team so easily, who were claimed to have flawless teamwork? The Uchiha didn't really even seem tired!

Obito Uchiha put his mask back on with a smile on his face. He spoke to his defeated opponents. "You three are extremely powerful. So much, in fact, that I am willing to let you three live and let you in on a secret as well." He walked up to them and crouched down, bending his knees so that he was on eye level with them. "Once upon a time, the Uchiha were a powerful clan full of honor."

Itachi didn't miss the past tense way he said it. "Were?" he asked as he continued panting trying to regain his energy.

Obito nodded. "Yes, were. Anyways, that story would go on for a long time and I don't really feel like I need to tell you guys everything yet, so I'll get to the point. Itachi, when you go back to the compound, ask your father about letting you in on the 'plan', saying that you are ready. Okay?"

Itachi nodded his head as he was just happy to be alive. "When the time comes," Obito continued, "I will return. And when I do, you three will come with me to Akatsuki, the organization that I am helping form right now. The times are changing, my young friends, and a new power is arising. It would be wise if you three were to join with us."

Nagato spoke up for the rest of his team. "We will never betray Konoha and those close to us!" he yelled at the man who was now standing over them.

Obito laughed, once again out of enjoyment. "Soon, when you find the truth, you will not have a choice. I'm certain you remember me, Itachi and Nagato. I am from Konoha after all. I've decided that there are too many interesting forces growing in the village, so I have returned for three reasons. One was to recruit you three when the time comes, protect the village from destruction through you guys, and the other reason…well you'll find out soon enough. Make sure that no one knows I came here, okay? And for you, Nagato, I believe that you should once more return to the library of your clan to learn of the secrets that have been kept for many years. If I remember correctly, only those with the Rinnegan will be able to see the secrets within that mysterious place. Use your eyes well, even within the library." He chuckled as he turned around and began to walk away. "And when the time comes, you will learn to call me 'sensei_'_."

With that, he laughed again and simply faded out of existence as he disappeared from the clearing.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Nagato and his team were walking back to Konoha, thinking about what just happened. The three were not seriously hurt, merely beaten. The man really had no intentions of killing them; he just seemed to be measuring their power.

Itachi spoke up as he relived the silent tension. "Nagato, should we report this man to the Hokage?" Nagato frowned as he shook he head.

"No," he responded, turning to his tired friend. "We should listen to the man's warning to avoid future conflict. And you should also ask your father what Obito told you to ask. I am very curious as to what could possibly change our minds and force us to leave Konoha. I of course, will be returning to the Namikaze library with Konan to learn of whatever 'secrets' this man has been talking about. Truly, this has been an interesting experience for all of us. Let us see what we will learn."

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Day, Uchiha Compound_

Itachi closed the door of his father's office as he left the meeting room.

What he had learned was horrific. The Uchiha, the clan that he had once thought glorious, was planning to take over the village in the name of revenge and evil. Not only that, but they were the ones responsible for killing of all of the Namikaze clan aside from Nagato and Naruto.

He didn't believe it. His father had said that everyone in the clan was a part of the plan, except for him, Itachi, due to his connections to Nagato. He would have to confirm this horrible plan by asking Shisui later.

He quickly ran out of the compound. Nagato and the Hokage needed to know of this immediately!

________________________________________________________________________

Nagato and Konan left the Namikaze library together as they prepared to meet with Itachi. They had spent all of last night and this morning learning what they could have in the library. Nagato, like Obito had said, activated his Rinnegan upon entering the library and was shocked from what he saw.

What he read was even more important.

Itachi and the Hokage needed to know of this immediately!

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Day, Outside the Hokage's Office_

Nagato grabbed hold of his friends as he transported them back to his house in an orange flash.

Upon reappearing in his house, Konan collapsed on the floor and began to sob, while Itachi slumped against a wall and Nagato sat down in a chair.

After a while, Itachi stood up and spoke to the group. "I don't believe this. Maybe we won't have to follow through with the plan if it was all a lie. I'm going to as Shisui right now!"

With that, he left the house.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________________

Itachi fell to the ground as he openly wept. The body of one of his best friends, Shisui, lay next to him, killed by his own hand. Itachi had been forced to attack Shisui, so that Shisui wouldn't inform the clan that Itachi was going to betray them, and so that he himself wouldn't be killed.

But that didn't make killing his childhood friend any easier.

It wasn't fair! Shisui and him had always been together! Why now did he have to kill his friend?!

Suddenly, Itachi closed his eyes and covered them with his hands as he screamed out in pain. He laid there for a minute in agony until the pain died away.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the world with a new clarity as the Mangekyou Sharingan spun wildly in his crimson eyes filled with tears.

________________________________________________________________________

_Namikaze House_

Nagato, Itachi and Konan sat around the kitchen table. Naruto was currently at the Hyuuga mansion playing around with Sasuke and Hinata, much to the little girl's delight. They were being supervised by her kind mother who had allowed them to come over.

Nagato spoke to his friends who no longer had the strength to smile. "We have weeks to prepare. What I have read in the scroll is very important, and we must all keep it in mind as we carry out our plans."

Konan sniffed her nose and responded. "We've all grown so close to each other. We're all like one big family! And I hate separating families," she sadly told the rest of them. They understood. "Hinata is like a little sister to me, and I play an important role in her life. I don't know how I'm going to look her in the face for that last time and pretend that nothing is going to happen and that it's going to be a normal day…" Tears rolled down her face once more.

Itachi understood how Konan felt, though he didn't think he could afford any pity on her. "How am I supposed to use my new power and harm Sasuke, the one who is closer to me than my own mother and father? How am I supposed to slay those who raised me? How will I…"

Nagato interrupted him. "We mustn't dwell on the negative aspects now. Too many bad events are happening to us. We should enjoy the time we have now with our friends and family. After the events occur, we must not tell Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata or anyone else why we followed through with the Hokage's plan. Our little friends will have to figure it out for themselves one day or we will tell them when the time is right. Obito was correct as well. We must follow him and learn more from him. If what he said was true, and so far everything from him has been correct, then we all need to become more powerful to protect those close to us. We must now do this from the inside, within the organization of Akatsuki itself. We will continue to protect those precious to us! As for our siblings, I want you to write letters saying as much as you want as long as you don't reveal to them why we have done what we will do. I will then hide the letters in the library of the Namikaze. And when we leave the village and Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata turn 12 and become Genin, I will have Kakashi give Naruto one of my letters telling him where the library is and where our letters are. Also, when you have your last words with Sasuke, Itachi, make sure you lead him in a way not of revenge."

Itachi and Konan both silently nodded and agreed with Nagato.

"And then the three will also learn the secrets which we have recently stumbled upon, and they will understand."

________________________________________________________________________

Kakashi was shocked as he was told what Nagato planned to do. Nagato had told him to eventually become Naruto's Jonin teacher, as well as Sasuke and Hinata. He had also told him to tell Naruto where the Namikaze Clan was and to give him one letter when he became 12 and a Genin. What had shocked him the most however, was that Nagato was about to help Itachi murder the entire Uchiha Clan for unknown reasons.

He didn't have any time to ask either as he was knocked unconscious to the ground as Nagato appeared behind him.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Uchiha Compound_

"_Mangekyou Sharingan!"_

Sasuke looked on in horror as blood spilled before him in the crimson world of Tsukuyomi.

Uchiha Clan.

Uncle...

Aunt…

Kakashi…

Father…!

Mother!!!

"Stop it!!" he screamed as he clutched his head in pain. "Stop it! Brother, why are you doing this?!"

Sasuke's screams of agony fell on deaf ears. His brother was killing everyone close to him, right before his eyes…

Sasuke reappeared in the training field that he and his friends had been training on for nearly a year now. Crimson skies cursed the air with the feeling of death. Naruto and Hinata were playing in the middle of the field oblivious to anything around them.

"Naruto! Hinata!" Sasuke ran to his two best friends as he screamed out their names.

Suddenly, Itachi appeared next to the two children and appeared to be talking to them.

"No! Naruto, Hinata! Run!" Sasuke screamed upon the appearance of his brother. Not his friends. Please, not them too. As he ran the fields, he could see the scene perfectly, but he wasn't getting any closer…

Itachi raised his blade and let it fall upon the two children who were closest to Sasuke and the blood spilled before him.

"No!!!!!!" He grabbed his head as he screamed at his two friend's death. He had no one now. No one. His family, his clan, his best and only friends…

Nagato and Konan appeared next to Itachi and together they jumped away.

________________________________________________________________________

The crimson world of Tsukuyomi faded as Sasuke returned to reality.

He fell to his knees as he grabbed his head, screaming in emotional pain. Everyone…

Itachi stared at his brother feeling the worst pain he had ever felt before. He had to watch his brother suffer before him, and he was forbidden to comfort him. He closed his own eyes in pain as the Mangekyou faded out of his eyes, returning to their original black color.

Suddenly, Sasuke who had become silent lying on the floor began to scream in pain, this time because he actually was hurting.

Itachi watched him cover his eyes as they began to burn inside of him. For an entire minute, he watched his little brother scream in pain.

When Sasuke finally stood up and opened his eyes. Instead of being their normal black color, they had a different appearance.

Sasuke stared at his brother with his own Mangekyou Sharingan activated, feeling more powerful than ever before.

Itachi stared at his little brother in relief. It was complete. The plan was a success. The Mangekyou took the appearance of a six-sided star, with another smaller star inside of it that was not unlike an atomic model, and unlike other Sharingans, which have a black design and red background; Sasuke's had a red design and a black background.

This design was unmistakable. Sasuke possessed the strongest of all Mangekyou eyes, the legendary _Kagai Mangekyou_.

Suddenly, flaming bright-red tattoos of fire began to glow and spread over Sasuke's body and a sinister black chakra surrounded him as well.

Itachi had to step back as the powerful surge of chakra hit him. It was…overwhelming. Quickly, as the plan required, Itachi appeared in front of his brother in a burst of speed and with his pointer finger and his middle finger together he poked Sasuke in the forehead.

Immediately, the flame disappeared and bright-red flames covering Sasuke in the form of tattoos turned black before retreating away completely to somewhere seemingly the left side on the back of his neck. Then, his Mangekyou faded until a normal Sharingan with one tomoe in each eye appeared, and after his eyes faded to normal blackness.

Sasuke then fell to his knees as he looked up as his brother, pain in his eyes.

"Sasuke-otouto," Itachi said in a voice void of emotion, "As you have seen, I have killed many tonight. Protect your life Sasuke, but more importantly, protect the lives of others precious to you. Live not a life of revenge, but one of righteousness. Only when you live that kind of life will you become stronger than me. Seek not revenge, but seek peace! Use the power I have given you for righteous deeds. Overcome the evil desire that the power of your _Kagai Mangekyou _will bring to you. Sasuke, when the time is right you will understand everything. We will meet again."

The last thing Sasuke saw was Itachi's Mangekyou before passing into unconsciousness.

________________________________________________________________________

Nagato looked up to the window as he felt a surge of powerful chakra pass through him. His time was up, and he had to meet with his friends now to leave the village. He turned back to his crying 7-year-old little brother before him.

"Remember what I have told you tonight Naruto. Protect those close and precious to you. Follow in the ways that I have raised you. I must go now, but when the time is right you will understand everything. We will meet again. I will leave you with a parting gift."

Nagato then walked over to the crying child and with his index and middle fingers together, he poked him in the forehead.

________________________________________________________________________

Tears escaped Konan's eyes as she jumped out of Hinata's bedroom window to where she was to meet with her group. Telling Hinata that she had to leave was unbearable. Watching the girl cry was even harder. When she left, she prepared her special jutsu and transferred her powers of the Byakugan to the little girl, knocking her unconscious.

As she jumped, she remembered to what had recently happened to her.

________________________________________________________________________

_Flash Back_

Konan sat in the middle of a specially designed seal circle made by Nagato, who was currently standing over her with his orange Rinnegan. Right now, Itachi was killing off the Uchiha Clan.

Nagato finished his long sealing jutsu. He faced Konan. "I'm ready. Be warned, this will be painful…"

Without waiting for a response, he slapped his hand down into the front of the seal circle. The five clones of himself that were standing around the circle did the same as him.

Orange chakra then began to flow through the intricate patterns of the seal circle and traveled up Konan and eventually into her forehead, where the Hyuuga bird-cage seal was visible. Konan gritted he teeth as she endured the pain.

________________________________________________________________________

_End of Flash Back_

The removal had been a success. For this she was grateful, as for the first time in her life, she felt free. Konan landed on top of the cliff where Nagato and Itachi were waiting for her.

________________________________________________________________________

Kakashi woke up and looked out into the sunlight of Konoha. Unlike many of the mornings of the Leaf Village, this one was not peaceful. ANBU ninja as well as Jonin ninja were flying around the village, searching for any hint on how the Uchiha Clan was slaughtered and the locations of the Legendary Three.

The copy-ninja frowned as he thought of what his job was now. 'Naruto. Sasuke. Hinata. I wonder how your futures will change after this morning, as well as the rest of Konoha.'

________________________________________________________________________

_End_

A/N: Pretty long chapter, I know, but this one was pretty easy to write. Because of its length, I'll go over some key events that happened:

Naruto trains with Nagato

Naruto meets Sasuke after learning the Kage Bunshin Technique

Naruto befriends Sasuke and they train

Konan takes on Hinata as her apprentice

Hinata befriends Naruto and Sasuke

After months of training, Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata improve

Nagato, Itachi, and Konan confront Obito and are defeated easily. He instructs them to do several things

Nagato, Itachi, and Konan leave letters for the three children in the Namikaze library

Sasuke acquires the ultimate Kagai Mangekyou, though it is unknown how

Sasuke acquires the Sharingan with one tomoe in each eye, though it is unknown how

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata acquire powers from Nagato, Itachi and Konan

Legendary Three leave the village, following Obito

Thanks for reading. Please review! I was really happy when I received reviews, alerts or favorites from the following:

Naruto Namikaze the Legend

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Thanks guys!

Here are the following power levels in the story:

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500**

Characters (after training at the end of the chapter):

Hinata: **65**

Sasuke: **80**

Naruto: **120**

Sasuke With Kagai Mangekyou: **350 **(he has yet to master it)

Kakashi: **350**

Itachi: **480**

Konan: **480**

Itachi With Mangekyou: **500+**

Nagato: **500+**

Obito: **500+**

I feel that by giving out power levels readers will know how much the characters progress each chapter. Don't be fooled though, just because someone's power level is higher than another, doesn't mean that they will not be defeated in battle by someone of a lower power level.

Yes, Obito is not Madara and he somehow has two eyes. I know that in the manga he was revealed to be Madara, but don't worry! The mystery of this powerful Uchiha will be described in later chapters.

Another thing, the flames that appeared on Sasuke's body once he activated the Kagai Mangekyou are the same from the anime, when he activates his curse seal. The black chakra that surrounds him is different however.

Thanks again! Following chapters get more exciting with more action in them. I've already got the next few chapters planned out in bullet points and they're going to be exciting and important.

Next chapter: **Entering the Academy**

**-**williams5505


	3. Entering The Academy

Thanks for moving on to the next chapter! Also, thank you for all those who took the time to review or alert or put me in their favs. I had no idea how great it would feel to look and see proof that someone read and like my story. Just a couple weeks ago these ideas were all I my head!

Please read the following:

Ipride21: Thanks for the review. What you wrote very well may be on the mind of others as well, so let me clear some things up. Kakashi wasn't around much that chapter and he was only mentioned hanging around in memories of other characters. I planned for him not to be a major character until this chapter, because last chapter all I really wanted to focus on was Naruto's relationship with his friends and his brother. Kakashi, still being an ANBU captain, probably didn't have much quality family time. I only showed him a few times in the story to get the point across that he exists and knows Naruto, but he is not that important yet. Next, Naruto's chakra level is lower in the manga because… Namikaze's in the manga do not posses the same powers of the ones in my story, which posses the Rinnegan. Having the Rinnegan gives the user more chakra, as will be explained later in my story, and their bloodline advances their skill, like how Nagato was able to defeat Chunin and a young age in the manga. Next, I know Sannin is a title, and I listed their power levels because we all know about their power, and by listing their power we have a better idea about the other characters in the story. Since the Sannin are all nearly equal in power, their power level could be listed. You also said that the Sannin are on the same level as a Kage. So did I…(450-_500_). There are three different Sannin with different styles, remember? Also, if you would have read the ages in chapter 1, I stated that Itachi was _16. _In the manga, Itachi killed the clan when he was _13_. The Itachi in my story had three more years to train with Nagato, making him stronger. So, please read more carefully before the next time you criticize me. I'm down with constructive criticism to make my story better, but you were pretty nasty and it didn't sound like you were trying to help me.

Icey Dragon Flame: Thanks for the long review. As for the levels of ninja, you may be correct, but according to NarutoPedia, (which is insanely correct) Kakashi's highest ninja level was a Jonin, when he was also an ANBU member. Jonin were also stated to be elite ninjas who have served as military captains and are entrusted with the protection of their Genins if they have any. Hmm…

Another thing regarding power levels: Let's think about how powerful characters are going to be in the story. Kage level actually isn't that impressive. In the manga, Orochimaru was on a Kage level, and he could be defeated by Itachi. Itachi could get whooped by Pain, who in turn wasn't as strong as Madara. Kage level? Psh, not impressive at all when you could be defeated by a lot of other people.

Let's Begin!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The Second Born

Chapter 3: Entering The Academy

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The Sandaime Hokage sighed peacefully as he looked out the window of his office. It was truly a peaceful day, like many that were known to come to Konoha. The birds were singing melodious songs together, the sky was clear and blue, and he had just finished his paperwork. Yes, paperwork. The bane of his existence. He realized why the Nidaime was willing to give up his job.

He stood up as he walked out of the office and up onto the balcony of the building, dressed in his ceremonial Hokage robes. The wind blew gently across his body, his robes rippling like water. He happily sighed. He loved mornings such as these were he could truly relax and enjoy his job as the head of the village. He looked over the entire village. He was the current leader, but one day, he would have to pass his kingdom of prosperity on to the gentle soul of another one who shared…

His peaceful thoughts were interrupted as a Chunin messenger burst through the door leading to the balcony. He leaned over and began panting on his knees for a moment before he was able to speak.

"Hokage-sama!" he actually yelled across the balcony. The Sandaime sighed as he realized that his daily two minutes of peace had already come to an end. He walked over to the messenger to see what he had to say. The Chunin continued.

"Sasuke is finally awakening from his coma!" The Sandaime's attitude immediately changed from a calm and peaceful face to a serious one. He stormed out of the balcony and into the building as he yelled,

"Take me to his room, immediately!"

The Chunin stood still for a moment, shocked at the sudden change in his leader's attitude, before running after him.

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Sasuke struggled in his bed as he continuously thrashed around. Images of his dying family and friends appeared in his head. Images of Itachi, his brother, slaying all of those close to him. The memory of the immense power he felt when the black chakra surrounded them. His eyes…

His eyes! He had felt the power in his eyes, and his own brother had said that he had acquired the Mangekyou Sharingan or the Kagai Mangekyou as he called it. How could he, Sasuke, have acquired the legendary eyes of the Mangekyou? He also recalled that when the Mangekyou faded, a normal Sharingan was left in his eyes.

That was about the only benefit he remembered that night. He had finally activated his Sharingan, at the price of the deaths of everyone close to him.

He finally felt himself coming through, and eventually he felt the comfort of a bed beneath him.

He could hear the worried voices of people around him. Perhaps if he opened his eyes, he would find out that it was all a dream. He would find Naruto, Hinata, his mother and father, and Itachi as well standing around his bed, concerned for him.

He swatted the childish idea away as he realized that that would never happen. He would never see those people again…

When he finally opened his eyes, he saw the Hokage by his bedside, as well as a nurse and some other ninja. He sat up and looked out the window, ignoring the others in the room.

The Hokage skipped the small talk and went straight to business. "Sasuke," he calmly spoke, his eyes drilling into the small Uchiha's, "I need to know who killed the Uchiha Clan last night."

Sasuke ignored them as he continued to look out the window. "How long have I been out," he responded in a monotone voice.

The Hokage sighed. He would have to take things one step at a time. "You have been in a coma for three days…"

Sasuke nodded. Three days… Three days ago his childhood ended. Three days ago Itachi had killed his precious people.

The Hokage asked once more. "Sasuke, I need to know. Who killed the Uchiha Clan? Was it a foreign ninja, or the Legendary Three, or Naruto, or…" He wasn't able to finish as Sasuke snapped his head back to them so quickly that several ninja in the room flinched.

"Naruto?!" he yelled at the Hokage, "Are you insane?! How could Naruto have possibly killed _anybody _when he was slain by…by…"

The Hokage sighed. The boy wasn't telling him any information. Perhaps he needed to go through things slower. "We have evidence to believe that Naruto has not been slain the night of the massacre. Though he is nowhere to be found, there is a chance that he disappeared to wherever the Legendary Three have gone."

Sasuke shook his head in frustration. "I saw it! I saw it with my own eyes! _He _showed me! He showed me everything…" Sasuke screamed as grabbed his head once more and fell back to his bed yelling in pain. The nurse in the room rushed to him to make sure that he wouldn't pass back into is coma state.

The Hokage frowned as he thought of what the boy had said. He knew that the killer was Itachi, with the help of Nagato, but he needed to pretend to discover this when Sasuke told him. As for Naruto…he was completely unsure of where the boy was. But his location was vital. Being the last of the Namikaze clan, if he were to completely disappear…

The Sandaime felt bad as Sasuke began to calm down. This boy had lost nearly everything to him. Not only that, but he had to watch it as well. When Sasuke became silent again, the Hokage asked once more.

"Who was it that killed the Uchiha Clan, Sasuke?"

This time Sasuke looked directly into the eyes of the Hokage and responded with venom in his voice.

"My brother, Uchiha Itachi killed everyone, with the help of his team." he loudly proclaimed in a hatred filled voice that no one thought a 7-year-old could produce.

The ninjas in the room were shocked. Everyone had idolized the Legendary Three for their power and loyalty. To think that they would betray them…and kill their police force as well…

The Sandaime had a grave look on his face. He turned around to the group of ninja present, as well as the nurse. "Everybody leave the room at once! I need to have a word with the boy."

All those present obliged and left the room, leaving the Hokage alone with Sasuke.

Surprisingly, to Sasuke's pleasure, the Hokage didn't ask for the details of the massacre. He didn't think that he could take remembering it all again…

Sarutobi turned to the child in his bed, and spoke to him like an adult. "While your entire family has been killed, young Sasuke, I do not believe that you should give up hope, for you are not completely alone."

At this, Sasuke quickly turned once more to the Hokage, with anger in his voice. "Who?! Who has he left that is close to me? Who hasn't he killed that meant something to me? Who?!"

The Hokage seemed startled for a moment. "I was under the impression that you were good friends with the young Hyuuga heiress, Hinata."

Sasuke looked to the Hokage with pained filled eyes that forced him to continue.

"I assure you, young Sasuke, that the little girl is physically safe and recovering at her house as we speak…"

Sasuke immediately jumped out of his bed and vaulted out the window of his room and ran directly to the Hyuuga mansion, to see Hinata with his own eyes. Perhaps if Hinata was alive, then Naruto would be alive as well…

Sarutobi sighed to himself as he watched the retreating form of Sasuke in the distance. He turned around and greeted the visitor that had appeared in the room.

"Hatake Kakashi, bring me good news," he nearly threatened at the ANBU captain who was standing before him, surprisingly serious without an orange book in sight.

"Hokage-sama, I have come to tell you that I have resigned from the ANBU and plan to become a Jonin leader," Kakashi said, looking directly at the Hokage with his one eye.

The Hokage sighed. "Then you will have to take the private Jonin Exams later, though I don't see why as you have been a successful captain in the past…" He was interrupted by Kakashi.

"I believe that I have found a new profession to occupy my time, and always going on ANBU missions just won't cut it," the Copy Ninja explained.

The Hokage merely lifted an eyebrow and waited for Kakashi to continue.

"I've found Naruto."

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_Hyuuga Mansion_

Hinata woke up this morning miserable as usual. These past few days had been horrible for her. First, Konan-sensei left her three days ago. She had lost her teacher as well as her older sister. Her mother was also pregnant with her soon to be younger sister, so she had been all alone recently. Second, Naruto disappeared the day after Konan-sensei left. Naruto-kun…

She had thought that her two best friends would be there for her to comfort her, but Naruto disappeared and Sasuke has been in a coma for the past three days.

Not only was she sad for her self, but she was miserable for the pain that Naruto-kun and Sasuke were going through. Nagato and Itachi had left as well, and they had always been friendly with her.

She remained absolutely silent as she made her bed and folded all of her cloths. The Hyuuga Clan had been extremely quiet and dull ever since Konan had left. She had always been the one who brought color to the place. She made everyone smile and she was kind to everyone as well…

She walked through the long porch outside her house planning to spend some time in her garden when she sensed someone coming from above.

On instinct, she immediately switched into her Jyuuken stance as she waited for the attacker to appear.

To her surprise, Sasuke landed in front of her. He stood there for a moment, staring at her with the most pain filled eyes, until he suddenly ran at her full force and gave her a giant hug. She returned it, and she could hear him openly sobbing into her.

Sasuke-kun… what did you have to go through…

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_The Next Day_

Kakashi jumped through the air as he headed to the Hyuuga compound. The Hokage and he decided that they would not go after Naruto until Sasuke and Hinata were ready, for it would be best to confront the child if his two best friends were along with him.

He, as an ANBU captain, was extremely talented when it came to searching and looking for enemy ninja. He had used his ninja dogs to find Naruto's location using his scent. The boy had left Konoha with some of his possessions and was heading in a location towards the Village of Grass. Kakashi planned to intercept him with Sasuke and Hinata today.

When he finally reached the mansion, he didn't bother going through the main entrance, but instead he leaped over the side and from there he went into a beautiful garden, which was unmistakably Hinata's.

He was unsurprised when he saw Hinata and Sasuke sitting together, talking about something.

Sasuke, however, was extremely surprised when he saw someone who he had thought was dead appearing before him.

Kakashi merely waved at the two. "Yo," he greeted, giving one of his signature eye smiles.

Sasuke jumped up again like he did the day before and ran over to hug Kakashi. The copy ninja himself was shocked for a moment at the boy's sudden display of affection.

He lightly patted Sasuke on the head as he waited for Hinata to explain.

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"Ah, I see," he quietly said in response to the small girl's explanation as well as Sasuke's. Itachi apparently had used Tsukuyomi on Sasuke to torture him, showing him that he killed everyone. The boy had truly gone through a lot.

He was curious though, "Sasuke, what happened when you came out of the effects of Itachi's attack?" he questioned the boy who was once again sitting next to Hinata.

Sasuke frowned. "After a while, I felt an immense pain in my eyes, and when I opened them, I saw everything with a new clarity, like someone had been closing my eyes for a long time. Then a power surged through me like never before and I felt unstoppable for a moment. Black chakra surrounded me and then…_he _came and poked me in the head. Afterwards, he explained to me… some things…and that I activated my Sharingan."

Kakashi knew that the boy was hiding more, but he didn't press him. Sasuke truly had become so much more powerful that night. Though he wondered why Itachi let his brother live, as well as give him this new power…

Kakashi sighed as he looked up and around the garden. The landscape was truly beautiful. Hannah Hyuuga really did have a talent for tending to gardens. There were cherry blossom trees as well as peach trees and other fruit trees, along with normal trees. Below them, bushes and flowers covered the place beautifully and created a wonderful natural fragrance that man couldn't dream of copying. Ponds and green grass filled the rest of the garden.

He turned back to the two children. "Well, anyways," he began, "I have come here for a reason. I have found Naruto, and I am curious as to whether you two want to come and help me find him."

The children immediately jumped up as Kakashi chuckled.

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_2 Days Later, Pathway_

Naruto smiled and waved at the small family that had given him shelter and food for the night. They sure had been kind to him, even to the point where they didn't ask questions such as why he was traveling and where he was going. Naruto was currently dressed in his full ninja outfit. On his seventh birthday, Kakashi had given Naruto one of his special outfits. It personally was one of Naruto's favorite gifts. The outfit consisted of the tight and stretchy under-armor which covered his entire upper-body, stopping half way up his face, covering all of his face below his eyes. This was a piece that Kakashi had always worn as well, but instead of Naruto's being a dark blue like Kakashi's, his was a pure white color that resembled the purity of freshly-fallen snow. It was surprisingly easy to breathe through, to Naruto's convenience. And while this mask didn't conceal Naruto as much as he wanted to, it was all he had and it covered his face. Naruto also wore ANBU gloves which were white as well, with metal pieces on them protecting the back of his hands.

On top of the under-armor was a no-sleeve blue tunic with a v-cut showing off a little of his muscular chest (muscular for a seven-year-old) covered by the white under-armor. There was a tight black belt going across his chest that held his katana diagonally on his back. Nagato had left him the katana before he left and Naruto found it on his bed when he had first woken up. There was a belt which held the tunic together at his waist. His pants were loose and white in color, almost concealing the dark sandals he was wearing. All of this was partially covered by the black robe he was wearing on the outside, which had no sleeves and connected at his upper chest. The robe also had a baggy hood which could cover his blonde hair effectively, and kept his arms and back hidden, as well as his sword. Naruto looked quite scary for his age, but he had the skills to back himself up. He needed to be hidden while he traveled in secret, so this outfit was perfect for him. Kakashi had even said that the design was originally created by the ancient Lin Kuei clan, who had at one point in history disappeared. The outfit was ideal for a ninja and it showed power.

Right now, he was traveling to the Village of Grass, to escape the horrible memories of Konoha and learn an ancient style of kenjutsu which Nagato had told…

He instantly stopped walking and put his head down as emotions flooded through him upon thinking of his brother again.

Why? Why did he leave him? Why did he help kill the Uchiha Clan and run away with his team? Naruto knew better than to think that Nagato murdered anyone because of uncontrolled aggression. That just wasn't his older brother. Nagato was always the calm one who thought things through. So there had to be a reason! And when Naruto figured it out…

He didn't know what to do. So he decided that he would train to become as strong as possible and then find his brother. And when he found his brother, he would find out the truth. That was all that mattered. Naruto did not seek out revenge for his brother. No, that was not how Nagato had raised him. He would seek out the truth as to why he had to suffer.

As for Hinata and Sasuke… They couldn't come with him. He was sure of this. He was better off detaching himself from his former best friends. If they were to come with him on his dangerous journey of power and truth-seeking and managed to get seriously injured or die…

He didn't know what he would do. He had already lost his family. If he were to lose them too…

No. They would stay safe in Konoha.

That's not to say Naruto didn't miss his friends. He did, very much so. Just as much as is nii-san and Konan and Itachi. Just thinking about Sasuke's smirk, Hinata's smile and her giggle made his heart yearn to go back to Konoha, to see his friends…

But he couldn't. They needed to stay safe.

He gritted his teeth in pain and pulled the black hood over his head as he continued forward on his path to the truth.

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_Weeks Later_

Kakashi sighed as Pakkun, his most talented ninja dog, dispersed in a small cloud of smoke.

He turned to the two children who were traveling with him. Sasuke could go with him on his free will, because he no longer had a family, but he had to convince Hinata's parents to let her accompany them. Hiashi was bent on not letting her go, but Hannah finally convinced her husband that Hinata should go and find the one she truly likes.

They were currently on a hill, one of the many that rolled across the Land of Grass. Kakashi pointed forward and spoke to his group, who were wearing backpacks for the long journey. "Naruto seems to be heading towards the Kusagakure. (Village Hidden in the Grass) Don't worry though; we are still on his trail. I fear however that we will not be able to intercept him before he reaches the village. But…I have been to the village on several occasions before, and I think you guys are going to be surprised!"

Sasuke nodded. Hinata did so as well, but nervously. She knew that they would find Naruto, but would he be willing to return to the village with them?

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_Days Later_

Naruto stood above Kusa, looking below truly in awe. The village truly was hidden in the grass. The gigantic area of grass that Naruto had been walking in seemed to go on for long distances, but he happened to stumble upon a large and deep valley. And the Grass village seemed to be hidden in the valley of grass. To normal vision on eye-level, one would only see a very large field of grass and hills, and the only way to see the village was to travel to the edge of a hidden valley. The sight was amazing.

As Naruto looked down below to the many people in the village, he could see that in the center of the valley, at the lowest point, was what seemed to resemble their version of the Kage tower. Naruto smiled underneath his white mask as he began to travel down to the village.

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_Days Later, Kusa_

Naruto frowned as he walked out of another shop. No one seemed willing to give any information about a swordsman that could teach him advanced kenjutsu. He had been here for several days and he hadn't learned a thing! This village was also much larger than Konoha and filled with many more civilians as well as ninjas. Naruto had managed to come in the village as a visitor because the foolish guards fell for his sob story and thought that a small little boy couldn't do any damage. After seeing so many people here as well as shinobi, Naruto was surprised that he hadn't seen many Grass shinobi in the past Chunin Exam finals that he had watched with Nagato.

Upon bringing up Nagato again, Naruto became sad. He couldn't seem to get over that he wouldn't wake up to see his brother again. Pain and grief filled him as he remembered the golden days when everyday he would see his nii-san and his team, as well as his own two best friends. He figured that he would always wear this white mask upon his face so that no one would ever be able to see the look of pain that he had. He hoped that Sasuke and Hinata were doing better than he was…

Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard a scream in a nearby alley. He tried to continue and ignore the scream so that he could continue his search, but his conscience got the better of him and he went back to investigate.

When he walked far enough down the valley, he saw kids somewhat older than him, possibly twelve, harassing a young girl that seemed to be his age. They seemed to have pushed her on the ground and were about to beat her.

One of the boys stood in front of her and spoke up. He seemed to be the leader. "Look what we got here. A little girl who doesn't seem to know her place. You should know better than to mess with me, girl!" he yelled at the girl on the ground. The other boys around him agreed as they cheered him on. Just as the teenager brought his fist up in the air to strike the cowering girl, he found that it wouldn't move.

It took him a moment to realize why. He turned to look up at his arm to realize that a strange boy in a hooded cloak and a blue tunic was holding his hand, not even facing him.

The twelve-year-old boy tried to pull his hand away, but it was being held in place with a grip that felt like iron!

Naruto spoke, still turned facing away with his shady hood and mask concealing his face. "It would be wise to leave this alley now and refrain from ever picking on this girl again," he spoke in a voice that definitely didn't belong to a 7-year-old.

The older boy finally ripped his hand free, because Naruto had let go, and he backed off a little with his friends.

"Ha!" he mocked Naruto. "I'm the rookie of the year, and your just a little kid! Make me!" With that, he the other boys present rushed at Naruto with the intent of pummeling him.

Naruto merely looked up with his hood still shading his face, but for some reason, the boys could see his eyes glowing…gold?

Naruto pushed chakra into his eyes and activated the legendary golden Rinnegan.

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The small girl was amazed that a boy age had managed to so easily defeat the bullies around her. It seemed as if he could see every blow coming towards him before they even attacked! Amazing!

Naruto walked away from the beaten and unconscious boys, his gold spiral eyes fading back to their normal blue color.

He could have easily defeated his attackers without activating his bloodline, but he wanted to test his new power. The power that Nagato had given him.

Somehow, Nagato had made Naruto activate his bloodline limit, the Rinnegan. Naruto assumed that Nagato had done something when he touched Naruto in the forehead and knocked him unconscious. When Naruto had first woken up, he had seen the world more clearly than he could ever before. He could see far away, being able to read his instant ramen package from all the way across the room while his normal vision seemed only to be enhanced. When he looked outside to see birds flying away, he could see every one of their movements perfectly, as if they themselves were moving slower. And if he tried hard enough, he found out that he could see his own chakra within his body.

What surprised him though was that his blue chakra seemed to have turned gold. At this he knew he had activated the Rinnegan. Nagato had told him that the Rinnegan grants its user a secondary and more powerful chakra when activated, which allows them to perform more powerful techniques that require enough chakra to nearly kill a Jonin easily. Each user's chakra color would be unique to them, and it was very rare to see to Rinnegan users with the same secondary chakra color. Nagato had said that even in his clan, there had been no one sharing the same chakra color. Even if the Rinnegan's chakra was purple for two people, the purples would be a different shade of color. Nagato's secondary chakra was orange, which was why there was an orange flash when he used the Hiraishin technique. Nagato had also said that their father's chakra had been yellow, making his flash yellow in appearance.

Something else that surprised Naruto was that he also saw red chakra as well, in the area around his belly. Red chakra? The Rinnegan was only supposed to have one secondary chakra. So then where did the red chakra come from? Upon closer inspection, Naruto saw that the golden chakra seemed to be suppressing the red chakra. Naruto had nodded thoughtfully and decided that he would further inspect it later. He had some ideas as to why there could be a red chakra within him, but he would have to check up on some scrolls.

Now, when Naruto used his eyes in a battle, he felt that he was hardly challenged at all. He could effortlessly see and block each attack while he could attack faster and more precise.

Naruto began walking over to girl that was just getting up from the ground. He managed a small smile beneath his white mask as he greeted himself.

"Hello, my name is…Naruto Namikaze," he stated after some hesitation.

The girl meekly replied. "I-I'm Kaori. Kaori Matsurama."

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_Next Day, Morning_

Naruto had finally found the master swordsman of the village, with Kaori's help. Much to his dislike, he had become friends with the girl, and they had gotten along well. She said that her father was here on a business trip, and last night she had invited him to dinner with he, which Naruto hesitantly accepted. The next day, she had to leave with her father to wherever they had come from.

Now, Naruto stood before the grand gate of the mansion where the swords master lived. He felt stupid that he hadn't looked here first; the place was huge! As he knocked on the door in the gate, a fancy butler appeared at the door.

"I take it you're here to see if master Shujinko will train you in the way of the sword?" he stated in a bored voice.

Naruto nodded his head in agreement. The butler sighed. "Follow me then. You'll probably get sent home just like the rest of them…"

Naruto walked through the impressively large but simple home as he was led to where 'Shujinko' was. They went through several flights of stairs before Naruto was led down a hall.

Finally, Naruto was led onto a large wooden balcony where he could see an old man sitting on the floor, facing away from the entrance and painting Japanese calligraphy with black paint. Naruto was stunned at the beautiful sight in front of the man. From the high balcony he could see the rising sun in the sky, and the beautiful valley filled with green grass and flowers. All Naruto could see was nature so he assumed that the house was at the edge of the village.

The old man spoke to Naruto, who was seemingly alone after the butler had slipped away unnoticed. "Ah, I see you have appreciation for the scenery. That's new; most just barge in here and demand for me to train them," he stated in a gravely voice filled with wisdom.

Naruto nodded his head and remained silent, for he felt it was the right thing to do.

For even a fool will be thought wise if he keeps his mouth shut.

Nagato had taught him this.

The man seemed to remain silent and focused as well before he continued. "Let me guess. You have mastered the basics of kenjutsu and you believe that one of your age with such talent should be taught by the best."

Naruto was impressed that the man seemed to already know of his talent and age without even looking at him. He shook his head in disagreement. "Master Shujinko," he began, "I have indeed mastered the basics, but that is not why I wish to train. I do not demand that you train me either. I humbly come here to ask you to train me so that I can protect the ones that I love."

The old man put his paintbrush down and he stood up and turned to Naruto, smiling.

"Then I will train you."

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Kakashi frowned as he looked at the terrain around him. They would arrive at the village in two, maybe three days.

_Naruto…I hope you will return with us so that I can fulfill Nagato's wishes…_

_­­_________________________________________________________________________

_Two Days Later_

Shujinko smiled at Naruto after he had sparred with him for a while. Naruto had been dramatically improving in the past days at an incredible pace. The two sat at a tea table the agitated butler prepared and began to drink calming jasmine tea. Naruto, of course, managed to drink his tea with his mask on which seemed to amaze even the old master himself. Eating and drinking without removing his mask was an illusionary technique Kakashi had taught him when Naruto begged to be trained.

Naruto was now feeling a little agitated as well. Every sword technique that he had tried, no matter how advanced of perfected, seemed to be easily foreseen and blocked by the old man. Shujinko chuckled as he spoke to the boy.

"You surely are talented! You truly have mastered the basics. No, normal kenjutsu won't do for you any more. I can teach you nothing more in the ordinary styles. For one as advanced as you, Naruto, you must learn a sword-style that compliments your taijutsu style. What is your taijutsu style, then?"

Naruto frowned beneath his mask as he responded. "I have also mastered basic taijutsu, though I have not pursued any specific style."

The old man seemed even happier. "Great! Kenjutsu wise, you have perfected every basic element. Even for the most talented learner, there is always one spot that has not been completely perfected. This is not the case for you. Therefore, I will give you a gift."

Shujinko reached his hand inside his large robe and he pulled out two normal style scrolls, which he handed to Naruto. Naruto was happy for the gift but confused as to why he would need a scroll if Shujinko would be training him. Shujinko, as if he heard Naruto's thoughts, answered his question.

"I have had a vision two mornings ago. Two visions, in fact. One was that a legendary ninja would come to me, asking for my training and guidance. The second was that this ninja would have to leave my village soon. This is why I gave you the scrolls. I believe that you are that legendary ninja and therefore I give you two of my most valuable possessions in hopes that they will help you grow stronger, so that you may protect your loved ones."

Naruto was honored to hear the man's words. He read the inscriptions on the scrolls. One said 'Elemental Taijutsu' while the other said 'Elemental Kenjutsu'. Shujinko once more explained before Naruto could ask anything.

"The elemental styles are not unlike that of the dragon styles. And while the dragon styles, also known as the 'copy-fist' styles take the best forms and attacks from other fighting styles, the elemental style takes the best forms from the elements themselves. It will teach you attacks as quick and sharp as the wind, yet as solid and powerful as the earth."

Naruto was amazed that the old man would give him these gifts. He stood up and bowed deeply before him. The man chuckled. "You are not done yet. While you will master the styles of those two scrolls, you must take a sword before you depart."

Naruto looked confused. "Which sword will I take?"

The old man laughed again. "Ah, I've worded myself wrongly again. You will have to _make _your own sword!"

Naruto bowed once more in gratitude.

________________________________________________________________________

Naruto paled as he heard the long and precise process of creating a sword. Shujinko reviewed once more.

"Remember Naruto, if you wish to truly master the art of kenjutsu, then your sword must be a true extension of yourself, of your personality, of your skill, of your chakra. You will choose its shape as well as its handle's design, and so forth. And I will be here to guide you along the way."

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Day_

Naruto woke up in the middle of the workshop in the old man's basement. He had fallen asleep on the floor from exhaustion after he completed making the sword. In fact, he had decided to make two swords, twin blades that turned out perfectly. The elemental style required the use of one sword as well as two, and the user had to be able to switch between the other in the middle of a combo!

The results of the blades were truly unbelievably amazing. The blades were identical, and each of their metals was perfectly silver, unlike the dull gray which most swords colors are. There size was perfect for Naruto. Not to long and not to short, but a nice medium size which fit Naruto. Even better, the old man said that because Naruto had made the blades himself with his own chakra, they would grow with him so that when he grew older the swords would grow longer and bigger as well, to perfectly fit him. It was as if the swords were living beings themselves. Shujinko had instructed him while they were working that a true blade master will 'listen to his sword'. While Naruto didn't know what that meant, he had an idea and he decided that he would fight with open ears.

The blades were perfectly straight and double-edged so that they could harm with both edges. The handles were also spectacular. Upon Naruto's will, the grips were perfectly white with golden lines and designs on them. The parts directly beneath the actual blade itself, the guards, were pure gold in color, as they proudly stuck out to the side and prevented Naruto's hand from getting cut from the blade. The handle itself was a nice metal, and Naruto was able to grip it well. There was also a golden triangle on the bottom hilt of the sword, on the pommel, and on the guards.

Naruto was extremely proud of himself for making the swords. Their scabbards were pure white as well, and they had golden flame designs on them. There were also the black straps that Naruto would use to hold the blades across his back.

Naruto smiled as he dressed in his blue tunic an cloak, for previously he had taken them off due to the heat and had been only in his white under-armor, strapped the swords around his back forming an 'X' and left the mans house leaving a thank-you letter on his door.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of Kusa_

Naruto once again looked down to the beautiful grass village as he prepared to leave. He had decided that he would return to Konoha and inform his friends of his plan before leaving once more. He had thought that it was cruel if he were to leave without them knowing whether or not he was alive.

Five minutes into his travel, he heard some voices up ahead and he hid himself behind a nearby tree, masking his chakra so that he wouldn't be detected.

Lo and behold, none other than Sasuke, Hinata and Kakashi came down the rode continuing their trip to find Naruto.

Naruto's heart nearly stopped when he heard the voices of his best friends and Kakashi approaching.

"Kakashi-senpai, let's move faster! You said were almost near the village!"

Naruto immediately identified the voice as Sasuke.

"Ano…Sasuke, I think that it would be best if w-we were to walk, so we can conserve our energy until we find Naruto-kun."

Hinata…

Naruto felt tears coming in his eyes upon the sound of their voices. When he finally saw them walking down the road in site, he decided to make his appearance to them.

He shushined in front of the group, with the sound effect of a thrown shuriken, so that his back was facing them and his head was turned side-ways so that he could see the group, though his face was hidden in the shadows of his hood.

The group immediately tensed upon the sight of the unknown ninja. Kakashi was surprised that he was unable to detect the shinobi before. Only those of an ANBU rank or higher knew how to mask their chakra perfectly. This could mean trouble…

Naruto's robe blew in the wind so that the group could see the back of his shirt now. Kakashi nearly had a heart-attack as he looked upon the pattern of the sleeveless blue tunic with white under-armor covering his arms. He was surprised to see two exceptionally looking scabbards holding swords on the back of what had to be Naruto. With reflexes one could only have from being an experienced shinobi, Kakashi immediately calmed down and appeared relaxed.

Naruto completely turned around so that now he was facing the group. Sasuke and Hinata were still on guard behind Kakashi as they did not recognize Naruto in his outfit and with his hood and white mask covering his face.

Faster than Kakashi could keep up with, Naruto appeared behind him and directly in front of Sasuke and Hinata. The two children flinched at the sudden appearance of the ninja and the incredible speed he possessed.

Only when they were about to attack did Naruto take off his hood, earning himself a gasp from both Sasuke and Hinata who immediately recognized him even with his mask on.

________________________________________________________________________

_Kusa_

The three were now eating lunch in the middle of Kusa at a nice restaurant outdoors. The guards had let Kakashi in knowing that he was an honest ninja allied to their village. Sasuke had insisted that they still go to Kusa because he wanted to see the village.

At first, when Sasuke saw Naruto, he was speechless. Then, Naruto himself spoke up.

"It's good to see you again Sasuke," he spoke to him first; "it's been a couple of weeks. I hope you haven't gotten lazy without me!"

Then Naruto ran up and gave Sasuke a bro-hug. Sasuke actually cried a little after seeing Naruto, who he had thought was killed by Itachi.

Hinata meanwhile, was nervously standing nearby, also shocked by the appearance of her loved one. _I can't believe that I'm seeing Naruto-kun again! This is great! It's been so long; I wonder how he's changed. He looks really handsome in that ninja outfit… _Hinata turned tomato-red upon thinking this thought. Suddenly, a new thought came to her as well:

_Will Naruto-kun hug me too when he and Sasuke part?!_

She immediately began pushing her fingers together in a nervous habit. Darn-it! She had thought that she was beginning to overcome her nervous habit around Naruto, like Konan had around Nagato. Konan had told Hinata that she once had been shy and nervous around Nagato like Hinata was around Naruto. But Hinata had been getting better, being able to open up more to him more than ever before.

Only for her to be back at square one after his absence for several weeks. Kuso!

Naruto and Sasuke parted and smiled at each other, and Kakashi came up to the two as well and ruffled both of their hair.

Suddenly, Hinata closed her eyes tight and held her arms out as she waited for Naruto to hug her too. _I have to be ready for this…_

After a few moments of nothing happening, she opened her eyes to see Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi walking ahead on the road talking about wanting to see the village and having lunch.

Hinata put her head down in embarrassment and shame as she sweat-dropped. _I was so close, but he ignored me…_

Suddenly, Naruto turned around from the group and looked at Hinata behind them with her head down and a sad look on her face. A light bulb clicked on in his head. "Oy, Hinata, did you want a hug too?!"

He ran over the girl who didn't seem to hear him and tackled her in a bear hug which she was unprepared for, making the two fall over with Naruto on top of her.

She looked up surprised to see Naruto…yes Naruto!!!...about an inch away from her face, laying on top of her and giving her a hug.

_Naruto-kun…_

"Hehe, sorry 'bout that Hinata-chan. My bad!" he said, still oblivious of how he was making Hinata feel being so close to her.

_Naruto-kun...he called me 'Hinata-chan'…_

_He's so close…Naruto-kun's so close to me…were almost kissing!_

Naruto began to realize that Hinata's face was a deeper shade of red than a red apple. "Hinata-chan, are you okay?" She continued to stare wide-eyed at his face. Sasuke was just as confused as Naruto was and Kakashi was giggling. "Oy, Hinata! Hinata-chan!"

Hinata was brought back from her fantasy world to reality as she was reminded of her situation. She squealed and sat up extremely fast, so fast, in fact that she knocked Naruto's head and sent him flying up in the air and into Sasuke, who was knocked down with an 'oomph'

Hinata herself was dazed from the blow, and from having too much Naruto at one time, so she felled back down again and passed into unconsciousness with a peaceful smile on her face.

_Naruto-kun…_

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of Kusa_

After lunch, the group was once more outside of Kusa on a hill with Naruto explaining why he left and what happened during his stay in Kusa.

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully when Naruto finished his story. "It sounds like you have done some pretty interesting things, Naruto. I'm impressed at the amazing swords that you have seemed to made, as well as the scrolls that were given to you. I'm curious though as to where you were planning to go after leaving Kusa."

Naruto frowned behind his mask as he explained. "Actually, I was going to return to Konoha to show you guys that I am alive, and then I was going to leave alone and travel the map and search for Nagato as well as train in different villages, until I find the truth."

Kakashi was surprised that Naruto seemed to willing to give up his dream to become the Hokage just to look for his brother. _Naruto has changed so much that fateful day when the Legendary Three left the village…_

Hinata put her head down in sadness as she thought of life without her Naruto-kun. _Naruto-kun… if you were to leave me…I….I…_

Sasuke was _pissed _that Naruto, his best friend, would even think of leaving without him. "Naruto!" he surprised everyone by yelling. "There is no way in _hell _that you are going to leave the village without me and Hinata by your side! Itachi is my brother, and he is still out there too! Even after Itachi murdered my clan, Nagato and Konan still stuck with him, because they are all a team. And if my brother didn't separate from his team, then I won't separate with my team!"

Hinata quickly nodded her head in agreement.

Naruto felt honored at Sasuke's. Perhaps… _No. They must stay at Konoha. If they were to come with me and…and…_

Before Naruto could respond, Kakashi spoke up to the group. "Naruto," he began, "you said that you have two scrolls that you need to master, right?" Naruto nodded his head. Kakashi appeared to be in deep thought for a moment before he continued.

"I know that it is not in my power to tell you what to do, Naruto, but please listen to my suggestion." Naruto waited for him to continue. "Why don't you return to Konoha with us, and join the academy. While I bet you could already pass the Chunin exams, it is necessary for you to lay low for a while and earn your rank slowly. During this time, I will train the three of you to the best of my abilities. In fact, I have already resigned from the ANBU and plan to become a Jonin leader in the future as well, just so that I can be the sensei of you three. During the times at the academy, Naruto, you could also spend time to master the two scrolls that you received, as well as working with your two swords. When the time comes, you will be on a Genin team with Sasuke and Hinata, and I will train you three in teamwork. Naruto, you may be strong, but with the right team you three could be so much stronger. Nagato himself told me once that you three have more potential than his team had. And when you three perfect your teamwork and go on a few missions, you can depart with Sasuke and Hinata to seek whatever you must. You three are very close and would make the perfect team! Your desires to protect each other will be an amazing benefit, after all."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully as he took in what Kakashi said. _Perhaps…Very well, I will train in Konoha for 4 years, and then, I will leave and search for the truth. I will decide if Sasuke and Hinata will join with me when the time comes…but who am I to stop them? Their siblings left too, after all…_

Naruto smiled beneath his mask has he looked at the group.

"Guys, I'm coming back to Konoha!" he stated, pumping his fist in the air for effect.

Sasuke smirked, happy that he wouldn't be separated from Naruto.

Hinata sighed in immense relief. Perhaps, if she became strong enough, she could stay with Naruto-kun…

Kakashi eye-smiled and said something about a group hug, which Naruto heard. He pulled them all in and they all shared a friendly and reuniting moment.

________________________________________________________________________ 

_Konoha – Weeks Later_

Naruto sighed as he woke up in his room. It was decided, he couldn't stay in this apartment any more. Returning to Konoha had been hard for him; he was so used to walking around with Nagato or Konan all the time, he felt so lonely without them.

And when he walked into his apartment room… he almost expected Nagato to be there waiting for him making dinner with Konan. He couldn't stand the constant silence that filled the apartment. Nagato had _always _been with him, and most of the times he had brought a guest over.

Naruto sighed again as he finished packing everything. He had no idea where he would go, but he knew that he couldn't stay here…

Just then, Kakashi appeared in Naruto's bedroom window, crouching down with an eye-smile. "Yo," he greeted happily.

He was a little put off when Naruto didn't even respond. _The boy surely has changed since Nagato left, but how could he not after what he went through…_

Naruto waited for him to respond. He was not scared in the least at Kakashi's appearance. After years of experience of Itachi surprising him and scaring him, Naruto had learned to sense someone before they arrived, even if they used a short-range standard teleportation jutsu, like when Kakashi 'poofed' in out of nowhere. Naruto had learned to sense the chakra coming in the room before the jutsu was complete. No, he would never be caught off guard by something as simple as that. Chakra control was his strong point, after all.

Naruto waited for Kakashi to continue.

"Well, I see that you're packing up to leave Naruto, that's good. I came here this morning because I think I've found the right place were you should live."

Naruto nodded and picked up his baggage. He had only taken the most important things to him, most which was kept in scrolls in his big bag next to his cloths. Nagato had been a sealing expert after all, and he had but many items in scrolls where all Naruto would have to do is push some chakra into them for the item to appear. Naruto had taken pictures of him and Nagato, as well as the precious moments with Konan, Itachi, Sasuke and Hinata where they would be smiling together enjoying themselves. Naruto had also kept several other items in the scrolls as well, such as Nagato's favorite weapon, his light and metal staff. Naruto was curious as to why Nagato would leave it behind…

Naruto took one last sad look around his large room, his childhood, and jumped out the window with Kakashi.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of the Hyuuga Compound _

Naruto and Kakashi were now walking outside of the Hyuuga compound. Kakashi still hadn't told Naruto where he was taking him.

The strange duo continued to walk on as they enjoyed the scenery of Konoha this beautiful morning with a peaceful silence between them. If one were to look at the two, it could possibly be assumed that they were father and son, by the similarity of the way they dressed. As Kakashi now donned a standard Jonin vest, he also wore his dark blue under-armor that went up and covered most of his face, besides his right eye. Naruto also wore a similar under-armor beneath his sleeveless blue v-cut tunic with a black sash on his waist, black pants and two swords in white in gold scabbards diagonally placed across his back crossed like an 'X'. His under-armor was pure white, which made a difference though.

Just as they were walking by, the two saw Hinata walking up ahead, holding hands with her mother. Naruto smiled beneath his mask and ran up to the two, eager to greet one of his best friends.

Kakashi strolled casually up with his hands in his pockets at a slow pace, just in time to hear Hannah say that she and Hinata were going to the park so Hinata could spend more time outside the compound. Kakashi greeted her kindly and told her that he and Naruto were about to find Naruto's new house. Naruto quickly suggested that Hinata should come along with them. Kakashi, after hesitating, agreed with a smile.

Hinata then looked up to her mother with the most hopeful and innocent eyes that would make Kakuzu himself give the girl what she wanted. Hannah smiled at her daughter and told her she could go with the two before she returned to the compound.

Now, the three were walking casually along, heading behind the Hyuuga compound direction that Naruto had never taken before. Well, there was a reason he hadn't. All there was behind the massive Hyuuga compound was a single road that led to Konoha's giant outer wall. As Fate would have it, just as Naruto was about to ask Kakashi what he was thinking, Sasuke called out to the three and appeared running behind them.

The group waited for him to catch up. He greeted everyone kindly when he finally did.

"Hey everyone, I was just looking for Naruto for something to do. What are you guys doing now?" he asked, noticing the bags Naruto was carrying.

Kakashi sighed. This whole 'moving' situation was supposed to be kept a secret, but how could he possibly keep anything hidden about Naruto to his two closest friends? The three were truly inseparable. "Well, we were just going to go to help Naruto move into his new house, why don't you join us?" he asked in a bored voice.

Sasuke nodded. He understood why Naruto wanted to move into a new house. He was having his own problems staying in the Uchiha compound. He could see death, all around him…

Lo and behold, after walking for a few moments later, the three arrived in front of the giant wall. Kakashi eye-smiled as he looked at the confused kids before him. He walked up to the wall, and began to closely inspect it, earning him a few crazy looks. Finally, he found what he was looking for.

"Ah, he it is! Naruto, come over here and put your hand on the wall. And when you do, push a little chakra into it."

Naruto listened and he walked up to the wall. One stone stood out amongst the rest and is had a seal on it. Naruto pressed his hand against the wall and forced a little chakra into it. To everyone's surprise, aside from Kakashi, a part of the giant wall disappeared, leaving a rather large half-circle arch of an opening. Inside, they could all see a compound, much like the Hyuuga's, behind the wall.

Naruto was extremely confused. "There's no way that there has always been a compound behind this wall! How could I have missed it? Nagato on several occasions made me run across the entire length of the circular wall around Konoha."

Kakashi smiled at him. Why don't you all run up this all here and look on the other side."

The three nodded their heads and in no time they ran up the length of the wall. When they looked over, much to their surprise, all they saw was the many thick trees that tightly surrounded Konoha. Where was the compound that they just saw?

Sasuke, after making several trips down and up the wall, finally asked Kakashi, "How is it possible that we can see the compound when we look through this hole, but when we look from the outside, there's nothing?"

Kakashi merely eye-smiled and responded, "Welcome to the Namikaze Clan compound."

________________________________________________________________________

_Namikaze Compound_

When the three entered the wall, they were all amazed at the large compound before them. Each of the houses and shops on the sides of the roads were elaborately and magnificently designed, all with large and long wooden porches on them.

Kakashi explained to the three as they continued to walk down the road.

"The Namikaze's were known and renowned to be the greatest seal-experts in the world, greatly surpassing the talents of the still living Sannin, Jiraiya. They decided to hide their compound from the outside world be sealing it with their most detailed seals.

Hinata spoke up and asked a question. "Ano…Kakashi-senpai, how come we Hyuuga's were unable to see the compound with our all seeing Byakugan?"

Kakashi patted the shy girl on the head. "Good question. If I remembered correctly, they perfectly planned the construction of their compound. First, they placed it behind the Hyuuga Clan compound, where few have ever traveled. Second, their compound is actually outside of Konoha, surrounded by the thick forest. But, if a ninja were to travel around the outside of Konoha through the trees, he would still be unable to stumble upon the compound because of the advanced seals placed on it. Its illusionary seals keep it hidden from the common eye. The compound's advanced chakra suppressing seals keep it from being sensed and being seen from the Hyuuga's Byakugan or any other chakra seeing ability.

"Third, there are more advanced seals placed around the compound. Right now, we are actually outside of Konoha and in the beginning of the forests that surround us. But to the outside, it would seem as if the forest just continued. Even if a ninja were to actually travel through the compound to them it would only seem as if they were traveling through the normal forest, which is impressively solid. It's just like the wall that Naruto recently opened up. The wall was indeed solid, and one could very well touch it, but upon Naruto's command it faded until it showed its true appearance.

"In other words, with the Namikaze's many sealing and time-space jutsus, they were almost able to create their own reality within reality. Once again, if a ninja were to travel through the compound right now was we speak, we wouldn't even see them as they would merely be placed in a time-space genjutsu where they only appear to be traveling through forest. Quite amazing, don't you think?

"Oh, and the seals were so brilliantly made that they are unable to be canceled by anyone other than a Namikaze, as Naruto showed us before. They will also probably last for another hundred years or so, before they need to be powered up again. Another interested aspect is that the pathway that Naruto opened as already closed itself, though we can still see through it. If we were to leave the compound now through the opening it would appear as if we just walked through a wall to anyone on the outside. And if anyone were to break the wall itself it would they would only see a forest in front of them. The Namikaze Clan compound is virtually one of the safest places in the world."

By that time they had just reached the front gates of a rather large mansion at the end of the road. They stood outside it for a moment, still enwrapped in the conversation. Naruto, who had been able to follow along, was still curious.

"Kakashi, what if we were to leave the compounds walls without using the entrance?"

Kakashi nodded and responded. "It would seem to anyone on the outside that we just appeared out of thin air once we left the area that the seals cover."

Hinata took her turn to ask a question as well. "Ano… what about the civilians who couldn't use chakra? How were they able to enter the compound?"

Kakashi responded again, after patting her on the head again, to her dismay. "All civilians were given a seal that they could press against the wall. And if they lost the seal, there would still always be someone on the inside who could see then and open the secret pathway for them. Any seals that were lost, the citizens reported them to the Clan Head and they were immediately deactivated."

Now it was Sasuke's turn to ask. "Why are we standing outside of this mansion?" he threw out in a sarcastic manner.

Kakashi smiled and responded. "Because this is the previous mansion of the Namikaze Clan Head, who just happened to be your father, Naruto. And now it is yours."

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's New House_

Everyone was amazed as they entered the large mansion. Naruto had to press his chakra against a seal once more that had been placed on the front gates of the mansion. Kakashi had explained that Naruto's father had made a complete barrier around the house, that even went underground, and nobody entered in to his house unless they were let in by him or if they were in his direct family, which was why Naruto had been able to open the gates.

The mansion was spectacular. It had two floors, both covered in nice wood. Naruto, however, was sure that he saw a large part of the house, like a tower, going up in the air at least five stories when he was walking in. It was almost castle like! And how had he not seen it immediately upon entering the village? It was nearly as big as the Hokage tower! But looking around, he only saw two floors. What was that about? Design? Well anyways… the house itself was rather large.

The first floor was nothing more than a long and wide hallway which went perfectly straight until it reached the kitchen, which was visible from the front door. Beyond the kitchen, the hallway continued straight until it reached a screen door which lead outside. The screen door, which was past the kitchen, could be seen from the front door also. It seems as if the house was built in one long hallway. There were also windows and doors going along this wide hallway.

Back at the front door, which could see all the way down the straight hallway, Naruto and crew were amazed at what they saw.

Directly in front of the front door both to the left and to the right, there were curved stairways that led to the second floor. All that was on the second floor were two hallways exactly parallel to the hallway on the first floor. If one were to walk down the one hallway of the first floor, above them to the left or right would be the second floor hallways on the side of the house, with railings on them.

On the two second floor hallways were also rooms corresponding with those on the first floor.

Kakashi spoke up. "Well, I haven't been to this house since I was about 12 years old, so I'm gonna go explore. You guys should too, since this is Naruto's new house and I'm sure that he will invite you two over all the time.

Sasuke, without any warnings, ran through up to the second floor on the left side bursting in one of the rooms, very much like an excited child and not a killer ninja who has suffered so much and obtained the most powerful Mangekyou. Kakashi put his hands in his pockets and walked down the first floor hallway, looking at some pictures that were on the wall. He had noticed that there was an absence of pictures on the walls, which was strange. The pictures, of course, had been of Minato, Kushina, Nagato and Naruto, some separately and some were they would all be together. Hiding the pictures had probably been of Nagato's doing. He probably didn't want Naruto to know of his heritage yet until he turned twelve. Kakashi assumed that Nagato must have written about it in the letters that he left for Naruto to have when he became a Genin.

Naruto, unlike Sasuke, slowly walked up the stairs to the right, appreciating the beauty of the house. _My parents…and Nagato…they all lived here before…_

Hinata looked left, straight and right and decided to go right and follow Naruto because…well…because he's Naruto and she likes him.

Together they went through some of the rooms.

________________________________________________________________________  
_Kenjutsu Training Room_

The first room that they went into had Naruto surprised. The room was rather large, with another sliding door on the opposite side which must have led to another balcony or hallway on the outside. The room itself was full of swords and all kinds of weapons that were hung on the wall. In the center of the large room was a big wooden square that nearly filled the room, which was elevated about one foot in the air. This was probably for sparring and training with the swords. This was perfect! Naruto needed an area to practice kenjutsu! Perhaps he and Sasuke could train here later. He looked at Hinata. _Or maybe, I can train Hinata-chan in the way of kenjutsu._

Hinata let out an 'eep' and turned away to the wall when Naruto looked at her. She had been currently switching off between admiring the room and admiring Naruto…

"Hinata-chan," he asked curiously, "what is it, did you see something?"

Hinata inwardly sighed. "I-Its n-nothing Naruto-kun."

Naruto shrugged and moved on. After the two looked at everything in the room, they walked across it and opened the wooden sliding door, walking out on the second-floor hallway that was outside.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside_

The scenery truly was beautiful. The outside hallway was like a long wooden balcony which went parallel to the other hallways. Looking up, there was a slanted roof above their heads so that if it were to rain, they still could travel through this hallway without getting wet. Naruto walked over to the railing and looked down the two stories. There was normal green grass on the ground, along with several trees, and in the background looking far away Naruto could see through the Namikaze's seals and could see the forest of Konoha.

He and Hinata walked down a little bit until they came up to the next sliding door, and they went in.

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's House, Library of Sealing_

The room the two walked into was unique as well. This room was filled with scrolls that were placed on shelves which surrounded the room. Strangely, when Naruto walked in and flicked the light switch on, the room was filled with candle light instead of light made from electricity. In the center of the room there was a desk with an ink brush and a sheet of paper on it. Curious, Naruto walked forward to investigate it. Hinata, meanwhile, walked around the room to see the scrolls on the shelves.

When Naruto reached the center of the desk, he found out that there were quite a few blank sheets of paper on it. Shuffling through each one, he wondered why the papers were blank. He looked through several other drawers in the desk, only to find more blank paper. But then, if there was blank paper in the drawers, why would there be any on the desk?

Hinata looked around the scrolls in the room. Why would a room meant for reading only be lit wit dim candles? She doubted she could read much in this light. When she reached the shelves surrounding the walls, she was surprised at what she saw. None of the scrolls appeared to have titles on them, separating them from one another. They all just looked…like each other. She reached up and picked a random scroll, opening it only to find out that the scroll was…blank as well?

They were all blank!

"Naruto-kun," she called out to the boy who was still puzzling over why there were many blank sheets of paper scattered around the desk. He turned and walked over to her.

"What is it?" he asked, noticing the scroll in her hand.

"All of the scrolls are blank!" she exclaimed.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and checked for himself. Indeed, all of the scrolls really were blank!

"This is just like the paper at the desk! Why would my family have shelves of scroll only for them…wait…Hinata, how many scrolls to you have?" he suddenly asked, noticing something strange on the shelf.

Hinata held out her hand. "Just one," she responded.

Naruto pointed to what he was looking at.

"Then why is there another missing scroll right in that spot?" he asked.

Hinata shook her head and shared the same confusion as he. She put the scroll she was holding and returned it to the shelf as they walked out of the room through the door. _What a strange room…_

__________________________________________________________________________

Upon walking outside to the main area with one hallway on the first floor and two hallways above it, Naruto called out,

"Sasuke!" yelled, waiting for a response.

A couple doors down on the opposite second floor hallway, Sasuke popped out one of the rooms.

"Where's Kakashi?" Naruto asked him.

Sasuke jumped over the railing and landed on the first floor. Naruto and Hinata followed his example.

"He went out of the compound to go and by groceries for you," he said, once they were walking together.

Hinata frowned as she thought about what Kakashi had said earlier. "How's he going to get back in the compound?" she worriedly asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "He took one of those seal things that he was talking about earlier, you know, the ones that allowed civilians to enter the compound. Surprisingly, there was one just lying out on the table. He's kinda lucky, I guess."

Hinata frowned as she thought about something. "How will _we _get back into the compound then, Sasuke?" she asked.

Sasuke frowned as well. He didn't know. This place seemed amazing. It had everything that they needed in order to train, including a large area Kakashi said was somewhere behind the house that could be used to spar or practice jutsus. He had no doubt that he would be returning to visit Naruto or train with him daily; it would be a bother if he could only get in the compound with Naruto's help or Kakashi sharing the seal with them.

The three kids walked down the hallway a little bit until they came to the kitchen that was in the center of the house, with a large table in the middle, probably meant for around eight or so people. Each of them was amazed when they walked into the kitchen. It was so large! It was definitely wider than the rest of the house! Also, the shape was just a circle, but the ceiling itself went up for nearly 6 stories!

The kitchen _was_ surprising large. The area where the kitchen laid was a large column with many windows placed on the high walls which surrounded them.

As the children began to explore the kitchen, Hinata went to the side near the wall where see saw a strange symbol on a brick, similar to the seals that had been on Konoha's wall as well as Naruto's gate to his house.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke!" she yelled to her friends. They quickly ran over to where she was. She pointed to the spot in the wall where she saw the seal.

Naruto immediately recognized it and pressed his hand onto the seal, pushing chakra into it.

Instantly, the three heard a loud gear-turning sound, like the sound of when a bridge across a moat is pulled up.

Then suddenly, part of the wall, in front of them, pushed itself out with a large '_kssshhh_'sound. Others followed directly after it; all making the crashing sound, all accelerating in speed and coming out faster, and soon a stairway could be seen spiraling up the wall.

The three were amazed, and after looking at each other, they walked up the stairs.

________________________________________________________________________

_Namikaze Astral Observatory_

It took several minutes to climb up all the stairs at a walking pace, but when they finally got up, they were all amazed.

Naruto looked around at the _very _large room that they had entered. Surely this was the tower that he had seen when he was walking in the house. His house had an astral observatory in it! It was huge! And in the middle of the large dimly lit room, there was a gigantic telescope, pointing directly up, covered by the ceiling.

Sasuke and Hinata were…amazed. They had never even seen an astral observatory before! There wasn't any in Konoha! Naruto's house was simply incredible.

Naruto turned to the group. "I'll check this place out later, but let's go back to the kitchen. I think Kakashi has returned."

Hinata and Sasuke didn't question him, and they started walking down the stairs. Naruto stayed for a second longer, curious as to how he knew Kakashi had returned. _Strange…_

________________________________________________________________________

_Kitchen_

Upon finally entering the kitchen and sitting down, Kakashi 'poofed' in the room in a cloud of smoke and greeted everybody.

"Yo," he said, eye-smiling. He looked confused for a moment when he realized that no one was surprised at his appearance. Surely Sasuke and Hinata didn't know how to sense chakra yet, and when someone appears out of no where in your room, shouldn't you be surprised?

Kakashi sighed and put all of his groceries down. He was carrying a _lot _of groceries.

"Alright, team. Help me put all of this food away and then let's have lunch!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Courtyard_

After lunch, the three had walked down the rest of the hallway and to nearly everyone's surprise, aside from Kakashi, there was a large courtyard in front of them. Kakashi had his share of being surprised though. Upon entering the kitchen and seeing the stairs going up, he was very shocked.

"An astral observatory?" he asked to himself after everyone explained to him where they had gone. "So that's what's always been up there. I always knew that it wasn't just a tower!"

Also, to much of Sasuke's surprise and jealously and Hinata's disappointment, Naruto had somehow managed to eat all of his food without removing his white mask.

_How was that even possible?! _Sasuke thought

_Now I'll never get to see Naruto-kun's face… _Hinata thought

_Ah, eating without removing one's mask. That's a lady-killer. Naruto's growing up to be just like me. Maybe I should have Sasuke start wearing a mask as well. He does seem disappointed that he doesn't know how Naruto's doing it... _Kakashi thought.

The courtyard was beautiful. Even more so than the garden in Hinata's backyard. Wonderful flowers of all colors and sakura cherry blossom trees filled the medium sized courtyard, which was beautiful. Birds also were flying around the courtyard. Naruto wondered if the seals around the compound didn't affect birds or any animal in general.

What also surprised Naruto was that on the opposite side of the courtyard was another house. Kakashi had explained that it was where all the bedrooms were.

Naruto's house was truly amazing.

________________________________________________________________________

After walking and exploring through the house some more, the four decided that it was time to leave and maybe do something in the village.

Upon walking to the front door of his house, Naruto noticed a scroll hanging on the back of the door. They probably hadn't noticed it on their way in because it was placed on the back of the door.

Naruto picked it up to observe it, and to his delight, he found that it was written in black ink unlike many of the black scrolls that he found in the library before. _Wait! This must be the seal that was missing before! But who put it here?_

But…being able to actually read the scroll didn't make him understand the seal either. It was very detailed and elaborate and seemingly not of their language. After everyone else looked at it and nobody recognized it, Sasuke spoke up.

"I don't know if it will help, but let me try looking at it again." When he was handed the scroll, he closed his eyes for a moment, pushing chakra into them.

When he opened them, his crimson eyes stood out and he looked around the room with newfound clarity.

Naruto and the rest were shocked.

"You can activate your Sharingan?!" Naruto nearly yelled at his friend, earning him a smirk.

Kakashi was impressed, and Hinata nodded her head shyly in approval.

"Yep," Sasuke replied. "But they're only in their first level. Itachi told me that there are three levels in the Sharingan, the third being the most powerful. He also told me that there is another higher level, the ultimate level, but it was rare for anyone to achieve it. I believe he called it the 'Mangekyou Sharingan'."

Kakashi nodded his head. He new of the most powerful Uchiha doujutsu and he also knew that Itachi possessed it. What Sasuke said next, however, completely caught him off guard.

"I also have somehow activated the Mangekyou Sharingan, or as Itachi told me, the 'Kagai Mangekyou'," he said proudly.

Kakashi nearly had a heart attack from surprise. A Mangekyou Sharingan?! Dear Lord, he's only 7-years-old!! And the Kagai Mangekyou on top of that! Kakashi had heard of the legendary Mangekyou before, when Obito used to be alive and on his team. The goofy Uchiha had said that it was the most powerful of all the Sharingans and that it belonged to the first Uchiha ever to exist, who was known to nearly be a god among people. In fact, if he remembered Obito correctly, he had claimed that the first ever Uchiha, whatever his name was, happened to be the first person to create genjutsu. Kakashi wondered who the first person to create ninjutsu was, or who the first person to create taijutsu was.

Sasuke continued. "Well…I don't know how to activate my Mangekyou Sharingan again, but I still can activate my Sharingan."

When he looked at the scroll before him, he was surprised to discover that it was surrounded in a strange…orange chakra? Who the hell had orange chakra? It was chakra, that he was sure of, but…

"What do you see?" Naruto asked him, eager to see if Sasuke had discovered something.

Sasuke shook his head. "I only see chakra flowing around the scroll, nothing else."

Hinata took the scroll away from him, nervously speaking up to the group.

"I too activated my bloodline limit," she quietly said, her eyes on the ground. Everyone looked impressed. She momentarily gave the scroll to Naruto and formed a tiger-seal with her hands. Once the Byakugan was fully mastered by the user, they were supposed to be able to activate it without the need of hand-seals, but Hinata wasn't at that point yet.

"_Byakugan!"_

With her new eyes, she was able to see every detail in the room clearly, having 360 degree vision. Her father was extremely impressed with her saying that it wasn't normal for the user to be able to see 360 degrees perfectly clearly at such an early age, but for some reason Hinata could. She was even able to use it better than her prodigy-of-a cousin Neji, who had activated it a year before her. Many people were now whispering among the clan that Hinata was even more a prodigy than Neji, which of course, she was. Her father and mother were so proud of her…

Even with her new eyes though, all she saw was a strange orange chakra hovering around the open scroll.

She shook her head in disappointment as she handed the scroll to Naruto, who was smiling under his mask.

"That's great that you've activated your bloodline too, Hinata-chan, because I have activated mine as well!" he stated, earning him several shocked looks. He closed his eyes for about two seconds, and when he opened them a golden Rinnegan appeared in his eyes.

He looked around the room for a moment, surprised at how much better he could see. While he couldn't see in 360 degree vision, he could see with abnormally well. The normal human eye possesses the attribute to focus in and out, but Naruto's Rinnegan eye could zoom as well, allowing him to read things far away. Also, if he pushed chakra into his eyes, he could see the chakra of others around him.

He turned to look at the scroll, surprising himself with what he saw. A title appeared on top of the scroll, above its seal, and it read: Special Passageway Seal.

Naruto flipped the seal over and read some instructions on the back. 'Place this seal on a desired surface. The first person to push their chakra into the seal will be the only ones able to activate the passageway.' There was also some hand written side-notes. _–The seal must be placed on a passageway. Use your Rinnegan to project the seal on a solid surface. Also, push some chakra into this scroll now._

Naruto nodded his head in understanding. This was perfect! If he could use this to make a seal for Hinata and Sasuke, they could come into the compound whenever they wanted to!

Curious, he pushed some chakra into the scroll as it instructed to see what happened. To his surprise, the scroll immediately burned into nothingness, not even leaving ashes behind.

Naruto looked quickly back and forth between Sasuke, Kakashi, and Hinata who were giving him nasty glares, sighing, and blushing at him, respectively.

"Oops, I guess…"

________________________________________________________________________

To Naruto's surprise, after the scroll burned and everyone, aside from Hinata, began nagging him about how they would never know what the seal was about and how to use it, he could still perfectly remember the seal, as if it was burned into his mind. Yet when he deactivated his Rinnegan, he couldn't remember.

When he activated his Rinnegan once more, he was surprised to find that was instantly able to see the exact image of the seal in his memory again. _Project the seal with your Rinnegan…what's that supposed to mean?_

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of the Namikaze Compound_

When the three exited the compound via the front gate, they were impressed to see that when they looked behind them, all that was there was Konoha's solid wall surrounding the village.

Naruto, however, went up to the wall and looked at the seal that he was meant to push chakra into to open the secret entrance. He stepped over to the right a little bit, where there was room to place a seal.

_Alright, all I have to do is project the seal…_

With the clear image of the seal in his mind, he tried to do just that. He saw the seal in the front of his mind and he envisioned it on the wall and to his surprise, a faint seal mark actually appeared on the wall. However, when he stopped envisioning it and looked upon the wall once more, the seal was gone.

He tried the process again, and just like last time, a seal appeared on the wall. This time, however, he pushed some chakra into the seal and to his delight, when he deactivated his Rinnegan; the seal was still there, visible in the wall.

He turned proudly to those behind him who were confused at his strange actions. He looked directly at Hinata and said, "Hey Hinata-chan, come over here and push some chakra into this seal here!"

The mentioned girl blushed a little at the way Naruto called her 'chan', but nonetheless the walked forward and did as she was told. To everyone's surprise, the secret opening of the compound appeared one more.

Naruto smirked behind his white mask as he explained. "With my Rinnegan, I was able to instantly copy the seal on the page as well as know what it was meant for. Then, I was able to project it on a solid surface. Ya I knooow, I'm pretty awesome!"

_______________________________________________________________________

_Days Later_

Sasuke woke up, sweating and panting in his bed. He swore to himself. Another nightmare about Itachi slaughtering his precious people.

He looked around his house. He was still staying in the Uchiha compound, but…he couldn't take it anymore. The feeling that every time he opens his door and expects everyone to be there…it's unbearable! The very compound itself felt as if it was a graveyard, a place where he wasn't welcome. He could almost feel the spirits of the many who died that fateful night…

He gritted his teeth in frustration as he dressed in his attire. Starting every morning like this was getting difficult.

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's House, Morning_

Naruto was currently sitting in his kitchen table underneath the astral observatory with Sasuke across from him. His best friend had paid him a visit this morning, which Naruto enjoyed. Having a great big house was great. Really great, actually. The other day in the astral observatory he had found another seal which activated a stairway to come out, which lead to the top of the tower. The view of the entire village before him on top of the observatory…it was amazing. Naruto had always been a sucker for being at places with nice views, like the Hokage Monument. But even all the great features that came with his house weren't as great when he had them alone. This is why he loved visitors at his house. That and it was really funny watching Hinata come over by herself. The shy girl was still very nervous around Naruto who found her blushing and stuttering cute and amusing at the same time. Oh well, that would go away with time…

Sasuke struck up the conversation. "Naruto, I came here today…" Sasuke sighed. He was having difficulty saying this.

"Naruto…I…I can't take this anymore!!" he finally yelled, standing up from the table. Naruto was alarmed at the sudden outburst from his friend. Sasuke still continued.

"I can't stand waking up every morning, expecting my mom to make me breakfast, only to find myself alone in my house! I can't stand the feeling that every time I come home, someone will be waiting for me! There never is! There never is anyone waiting for me! Because they're all dead!" he finished, tears in his eyes.

Naruto stood up and walked over to his friend, patting him on the back.

"It's okay Sasuke; I went through the same experience, which is why I ended up moving here. But what can I do to help you?" he asked, concerned for his friend.

Sasuke sighed and walked over to a window. After looking outside for several moments, he turned to Naruto and asked him.

"Naruto, I want to come here and move into your house."

Naruto was at a lost for words.

"It's big and perfect for training," he continued, "and I won't be alone anymore, thinking about my past."

Naruto seemed to be thinking for a moment before turning to Sasuke.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Go get your bags!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Namikaze Compound, Afternoon_

"Happy Birthday!!!!" everyone shouted, jumping up in the air, somewhat surprising Sasuke, the now 8-year-old boy. Well, he wasn't surprised at their appearances, of course. How could he? He had already mastered three fire jutsus, activated his Sharingan and was formidable at taijutsu, kenjutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu! No, he was surprised that everyone took the time to set up his party for him. Having friends was great…

'Everyone' included the usual Naruto, Hinata and Kakashi, with the Hokage himself. Surprisingly, there were others there as well, invited by Kakashi.

Several Jonin and ANBU were there, along with a Chunin close to Kakashi by the name of Iruka.

The party was quite large, and hearing the 'happy birthday' from everyone was quite exciting for young Sasuke.

Naruto ran up to him and nearly tackled him with the intention of slinging an arm around his shoulder.

"Happy birthday Sasuke!" he said, smiling behind his mask. Hinata came up as well, though she didn't attempt to tackle him.

"Happy birthday Sasuke-kun," she told him, smiling as well.

Kakashi walked over and patted Sasuke on the head, and then he walked over to talk with some of his buddies.

The party was hosted at the Namikaze compound which had been Sasuke's new home for a while now. Kakashi had invited his close friends and allies that he could trust not to cause mischief in the hidden compound. Sasuke's new room was in 2nd part of Naruto's house, the first part being the one with the wooden hallways and the astral observatory. His room was actually Nagato's old room, as Naruto was staying in his parent's room.

Sasuke smiled as he walked forward and joined the celebration with everybody.

________________________________________________________________________

"Presents time!" somebody shouted in the crowd, probably Naruto. Everyone agreed and entered the room where everyone had had previously put their presents for Sasuke in.

Once all the people were gathered, Sasuke began to open the presents given to him.

Inside the first box was a ninja outfit similar to Naruto's. Sasuke smirked; now he would have a mask like Naruto did and be all cool like. The under-armor was completely black, which was completely opposite of Naruto's. He also received black ANBU gloves with metal protectors which covered the back of his hands. The v-cut sleeveless tunic that he received was crimson, unlike Naruto's which was pure blue. His pants were black, along with the sandals he received.

Sasuke thanked Kakashi, who had been the one to give him the present.

Other presents included fire jutsus scrolls from someone, specially made healing cream from Hinata, a katana from Naruto, and many other gifts.

Sasuke's birthday was great.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later_

Naruto's birthday had been similar to Sasuke's, much to his delight. While he hadn't gotten a new outfit, he had gotten many ninja supplies which were more than enough. The mere company of others was an incredible feeling for him. Shikamaru and Chouji had attended as well, being invited by Naruto. After taking a break from training one day, Naruto had run into the two friends playing and they quickly bonded.

Sasuke, at the party, was wearing his new and cool (cooler than Naruto's, hn) ninja outfit that Kakashi had given him, the black mask covering his face below his eyes. Guest present were surprised when both he, Naruto and Kakashi were able to eat cake without taking their masks off.

The highlight of the day had been when people were giving out presents. After Sasuke gave his presents to Naruto, which were some wind scrolls he found back at his old house, it was Hinata's turn to give Naruto a present. Naruto had told everybody to wait as he ran through the house to get a camera so that they could all take a picture together. When he left the room looking for the camera and everyone in the room was waiting for him, Kakashi spoke up.

"Hinata, how about for this year's birthday present you give Naruto a kiss, hmm?" he asked, eye-smiling as usual.

The group broke into giggles, chuckles and full out laughter because everybody knew about the young girl's infatuation with Naruto.

Hinata, however, didn't take it so well, and turned extremely red blushing at the attention and the thought of kissing Naruto.

Naruto, of course, came in and set the camera up, ready to take a picture, oblivious to everything around him. He set it up and prepared for it to take a picture automatically in about 30 seconds.

The group quickly gathered close together, getting ready to smile and take the picture.

As fate, or Kakashi, would have it, Naruto ended up standing in the front next to Hinata. In a friendly way, he slung his arm around her shoulder and smiled for the picture.

Hinata, who was still trying to kill the blush from earlier, was caught off guard by the sudden contact with Naruto and she strongly blushed once more. Naruto, confused about why his friend was turning red, leaned in to her and whispered,

"Hey, Hinata, what's wrong? Are you feeling okay?" he inquired, concerned for his friend.

Hinata, on cue, blushed even more at Naruto being about a couple inches away from her face. She was beginning to feel faint…

Kakashi, on cue as well, whispered from behind,

"Hinata, do it now!" he whispered, referring back to her kissing him.

Hinata couldn't take it anymore and she fainted, knocking into Sasuke and starting a chain effect right in time for the camera to take the photo.

The picture was hilarious and Naruto would always smile when he would look at it. Hinata appeared in the photo to be dramatically passing out with the back of her hand on her forehead. Naruto appeared to be trying to save her from the fall, Sasuke was on one foot being hit by Hinata with his arms in the air, clearly about to fall over, a Jonin who was holding a drink behind Sasuke had spilled it on the Hokage in his robes who in turn elbowed another in the face and so on and so forth. Kakashi, however, appeared to be standing a little behind everybody and he was innocently eye-smiling at the picture, untouched by the mayhem in front of him.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hinata's Birthday, Weeks later_

The children's birthdays were surprisingly somewhat close to each other, only separated by a month or two. They were all 8-years-old now, and they were soon to enter the academy.

Upon Hinata's request, she only wanted her birthday party to be of her family and her friends, including Kakashi. At first, she didn't even want a party, but Naruto and Sasuke insisted.

The party had been more like the group spending quality time with each other. Everyone was enjoying each other's company. Hannah, Hinata's mother, had actually been pregnant for quite some time now and she was soon to give birth so Hinata's little brother of sister.

As for presents, Sasuke gave her an unbelievably nice and strong wooden staff (courtesy of him pestering Kakashi about it, who in turn pestered Tenzou) with beautiful patterns of carvings on it. Tenzou had also promised him that he could make the staff larger when she grew taller.

Kakashi had thought about giving her an outfit exactly like Naruto's and Sasuke's, but he thought that he might give her something like that later down the line. Instead, he gave her a blue sleeveless tank-top with flowers on it and a light blue appropriately short skirt, as well as comfortable ninja sandals. Hinata thanked him for the gift, but she wasn't sure if she could where such a thing in front of anybody, especially Naruto-kun. She preferred something less…revealing…even though she was only 8 years old now she was very shy about her own appearance. Oh well, maybe she'd give it a try…maybe…

Naruto had given her a beautiful necklace that her mother had helped him pick out. Actually, he had picked it out and Hannah had approved it saying that she would like it. He had dove deep into a nearby lake for practice one day and had found some oyster and clam shells. (A/N Please don't flame me for some small thing like this…I really haven't studied much about oysters or clam shells so I don't know if they can or can't be in a lake or something. Thank you.) To his surprise, when he collected a few, he had found some pearls in the oyster shells! He had strung a necklace together with the pearls and clam shells, resulting with a really beautiful necklace.

"Here you go, Hinata-chan," he nicely said to the girl who was staring wide-eyed at the gift. "I thought it would look good on you. I also think that your eyes look like beautiful pearls, so…they kinda match." he finished, nervously scratching the back of his head. He had spent a lot of time getting and making the present, and he wasn't sure she would like it. He knew that Hinata was sensitive, and if she thought that he was giving her a girl necklace because he thought she was weak… then he was in trouble. He spoke the truth, though.

When she received the necklace, she was so amazed, astonished and grateful. First, it was so beautiful! Hinata was amazed at the fact that they seemed to be real pearls. Pearls were expensive, and Naruto wasn't even on an income! Second, he must have spent some time to make the present. Just thinking about Naruto-kun spending time for her made her heart melt. Third, he said that her eyes looked like beautiful pearls!! No one had ever complimented her eyes before; they were pale and her pupils where the same color of her iris. But Naruto complimented them! He also gave her a hug telling her happy birthday again, which was more than enough for Hinata to say that this was the best birthday in her life.

Hiashi swore to himself. _I should have thought of that line: you're eyes look like pearls! Kuso! _

________________________________________________________________________

_Day's Later_

Kakashi was walking down the streets of Konoha today, after just leaving the Namikaze estate. He was walking while reading the orange book, of course, as he had found that recently he hadn't had enough time to read any of his newer versions, with the whole 'training Naruto and crew is taking up all of my life' situation. He had found a newfound respect to Nagato for being able to train Naruto so much.

He went to the estate at least twice every day now, training Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata, bringing them some groceries, or just visiting the boy. Not surprisingly, Hinata visited Naruto and Sasuke more than he did. Every time that she was not needed at the Hyuuga mansion, she was at the Namikaze compound, sometimes practicing her own style of Jyuuken. He too went there so much that he was becoming a fatherly figure to Naruto and Sasuke, and Hinata as well to some extent. Well he sure felt like one. He really was becoming attached to the three kids. He knew that he wasn't supposed to, not after he had lost everyone close to him, but…he couldn't help it. He was bonding at a rapid pace with them. They were becoming his precious people.

And he was sure that one of the reasons Nagato had left him responsible for the three kids was so that he could make new bonds. Clever bastard…

The afternoon was truly beautiful and he had decided that he would enjoy lunch out in Konoha today by himself. The three kids were currently out having a picnic or something.

________________________________________________________________________

_Grassy Field above the Hokage Monument _

Naruto sneezed as he continued to stuff his face with Hinata's cooking. _Damn this girl can cook! It's even better than Konan's, if I remember correctly! No time to think…gotta…eat…faster!_

The girl was blushing quietly nibbling on her own food as she watched Naruto and Sasuke eat at a freakish pace somehow without even removing their masks, to her irritation. With Naruto always wearing a mask, she never got to see his beautiful heart-melting smile…

________________________________________________________________________

Kakashi continued to walk down the road, hungry yet having no idea where to eat. But he didn't have to. Kakashi was an important person, and he figured that important things happened around important people like himself, so he would just go wherever the wind blew…

True to his word, he heard some quarrelling in a nearby food shop. _Perfect, _he thought, strolling over to what appeared to be a dango shop with an eye-smile.

Upon entering, he found several drunk men yelling at a woman eating at the bar, who was seemingly minding her own business. He decided to wait and listen to the conversation. One of his hobbies that he would never tell anyone was just listening in to interesting conversations that always happened around him while he pretended to read his book. His favorite conversations to eavesdrop in one were the ones that married couples had when they were arguing about something pointless. Ah, married couples. He chuckled to himself as he thought of how foolish a man could be to actually marry someone at a young age because of _love_, when clearly they were not the right match.

The woman who seemed to be the center of attention was Anko Mitarashi, the former apprentice of Orochimaru himself. Kakashi was never formally introduced to her and they never went on any missions together, but he knew who the Special Jonin was.

The men seemed to begin to yell and become somewhat violent. Most of the people in the bar were watching what was happening.

"We told ya, get the hell out of this place, you…you traitor!" one of them yelled at her.

Anko had just about had enough. Normally she was able to ignore people when they annoyed her or called her the _apprentice _of a traitor, but this man dared call her an actual traitor?

The man who had said it raised the beer bottle that he was holding and prepared to smash the lady on the head, who was waiting for the excuse to use 'self defense'.

But she never did, because the Copy Ninja of Konoha appeared in front of the man and grabbed his arm.

"I want to tell you to stop and just sit down," Kakashi began, pulling down his mask, "but I get the feeling that the type of guy who would hit a helpless and innocent little woman wouldn't listen to me."

The man was about to protest but found that he couldn't. The last thing that he saw before hitting the ground unconscious was Kakashi's Sharingan.

The others were surprised that their partner had fallen. "He can just kill you by _looking _at you, let's get out of here!"

They all agreed and quickly ran out of the bar, carrying their fallen buddy. The bar fell silent for at least five seconds before noise flooded in again and everybody went back to their business.

Kakashi pulled up his mask and sat down on the stool next to Anko, who was pissed at being called _helpless _and _innocent_. She glared at him as she spoke,

"Thanks, but no thanks. I could've easily handled those guys myself. Do you actually think that I'm _helpless_?" she hissed, clearly agitated.

Kakashi looked at the menu for about twenty seconds while Anko was staring at him and waiting for an answer until he told the bartender, "I'll have some dango, please, with some water." The bartender nodded and immediately prepared the 'hero' his meal.

Kakashi hummed to himself for another ten seconds until he noticed Anko giving him the dirtiest look she could manage.

"Oh I'm sorry, did you say something?" he asked her while he eye-smiled.

Anko fumed in anger as she pretended not to care.

"Me? Nope. I'm just curious as to why you 'saved' me and why you're not even introducing yourself afterwards."

Kakashi pulled out his little orange book as he just decided that it was more important than the conversation.

"Hmm?" he responded after another delay of 15 seconds.

Anko was nearly standing up out of her seat she was so angry.

"Why did you just save me and then not introduce yourself?!" she said, now nearly yelling.

Kakashi, still looking at his book, responded. "Oh, well because I already know you, and I'm pretty famous so you probably know me." He said, only making her angrier, because he was correct. Kakashi mentally sighed. He was Kakashi effing Hatake, who didn't know him?

Anko considered leaving, but she still had a few more dango pieces to finish so she decided to stay a little bit longer.

The bartender then came and placed a plate of three dango sticks covered in sauce in front of Kakashi. "Don't worry about paying young man," he said, "I can't possibly charge someone willing to defend this helpless lady here," he said, turning around to prepare something else.

"Ikadakimasu!" Kakashi said smiling and clapping his hands together.

Anko couldn't remember the last time she was so pissed off. She shoved the last piece of her dango in her mouth, furiously chewing while thinking. _This lazy bastard is the famous Copy-Nin? If he knew about me and that I'm a ninja, then why did he save me from those drunken men? Oh my god…he probably only did it so he could get a free meal! I've never seen him here before; since when does he ever eat dango??!!!_

She'd had it. She was just about to stand up and walk over to the door when Kakashi himself stood up.

"Well that was a good meal, and I enjoyed your company…Enko, was it? But, it's time for me to go. I've got a lot of stuff to do before I go back and train the kids. And it's a good thing that I saved your life, Enko, because I forgot my wallet!" he said, chuckling to himself and walking out the door.

Anko looked over to his plate in astonishment as she realized that he had actually finished all _three _of his dango sticks and drank his water in about the same time she finished one _piece_. There were about to many things that they was pissed off about that she accidentally cracked the sake bottle that she was about to finish.

_Kakashi Hatake, you will die!_

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Anko frowned as she watched Kakashi hidden in the bushes, a far distance away, masking her chakra. He was standing by one of the training grounds, staring at the stone which had all the names of the Konoha shinobi that were KIA. She had been watching him for about 45 minutes, but he hadn't moved an inch. But that didn't matter, she would outlast him!  
________________________________________________________________________

_15 Minutes Later_

Anko had had enough. She walked over to Kakashi, ready to rip his head off, and threw a kunai at his head.

Surprisingly, the kunai hit him in the head and he fell over. Instantly, Anko felt massive fear pulse through her heartbeat. _No way…_

She quickly ran to where he was, diving next to him to see if he was alright, only to find out that 'Kakashi' was just a stuffed scarecrow. She had been staring at a stuffed scarecrow for an hour…

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Kakashi walked out of the grocery store, sighing to himself. Buying groceries for three growing children sure took a lot of money out his pocket, but…he had inherited all of the Hatake Clan money and he was loaded.

He hummed to himself as he walked to the Namikaze clan entrance, which was quite the distance from the store. Sure, he could just use a short range traveling jutsu to appear outside of the Clan entrance, but he decided to walk. It was a beautiful day out, and he wanted to enjoy the sunlight as well as agitate Enko who was clearly following him.

________________________________________________________________________

_45 Minutes Later_

Anko was _pissssed_. Kakashi had been walking around in random circles in Konoha, more than twice walking down the same streets, carrying his groceries to god knows where. Once, she had been following Kakashi _outside _of Konoha only for him to dispel after 20 minutes. She had been following a _shadow clone_! Now, he was walking around the Hyuuga Clan. She slowly followed him, hiding behind fences and the sort.

Eventually, after walking around the Hyuuga Compound in a complete circle, he continued and walked down a dead-end road behind the Hyuuga compound that led to Konoha's outer wall.

_What now?_ She thought.

She barrow rolled to the crossing point of the roads and peeked behind the wall. He seemed to be standing directly in front of the wall, searching for something in a couple of his pockets. He turned around to see if anyone was looking at him, which he knew Anko was. She immediately pulled back her head behind to wall so she wouldn't be spotted.

"Ah, here's the seal! I thought I had kept it in my other pocket!" he purposely spoke out loud, enough for Anko to hear him.

When she turned around see what he meant, she was surprised to see…nothing.

He wasn't there anymore, there was just the blank wall of Konoha. He just…disappeared…

________________________________________________________________________

_Namikaze Compound_

Kakashi chuckled to himself as he looked through the invisible-to-him wall on the inside of the compound and saw Anko screaming in anger and frustration. _I still got it…_

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Konoha Hospital_

It was morning. Naruto and Hinata sat outside the hospital door where her mother lay soon to give birth to Hinata's little sister.

Naruto thought about his best friend, Hinata-chan. He had stayed with Hinata all through last night, waiting for her mother to give birth. Now, she lay there still sound asleep on his shoulder. Naruto smiled as he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Normally when she was around him she was shy, cute and nervous. But as Naruto looked upon her sleeping form on his shoulder, he realized how beautiful she looked when she peaceful and happy. He loved the moments when she was around him and she would smile when he made a joke or did something funny. That was one of the few reasons that he even tried to be funny. He felt honored that Hinata considered him to be one of her best friends as well. He smiled even wider behind his ever present white mask when he looked at her neck and he saw her wearing his necklace of clamshells and pearls. It looked really pretty on her.

They had known that Hinata's mother was going to have baby very soon, and for the past 3 days she had been in the hospital. Sasuke would have been there even after Hinata told both of them to go home and rest, but Naruto had talked with him outside and said that Hinata would feel guilty if they were both to lose sleep. Naruto and Sasuke decided that Naruto should still stay to keep her company and make sure she was alright. Sasuke afterwards left to go home and sleep late at night. Hinata couldn't find herself to say no to Naruto when he asked her if he could stay with her because he cared about how she was doing and he didn't want her to be alone. She had blushed a great deal, in fact.

Hmmm… Naruto had always thought that it was weird how Hinata blushed only around him. What could be the cause of it? Did he smell bad? Was she allergic to him? No, that couldn't be possible; she was laying right on him peacefully sleeping and she wasn't blushing. Could it possible be that…

Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts as Hinata's father opened the door of the emergency room.

Hinata woke up immediately at the sound and with a smile she eagerly spoke to her father, not even noticing that she had been sleeping on Naruto.

"Tousan!" she asked, "What's happened? Is Hanabi born yet?" Hinata knew about Hanabi's name because her parents had been discussing it for quite some time. Eventually, they all agreed on Hanabi because it started with an 'H' and Hiashi wanted to keep that.

Hiashi Hyuuga put his head down; tears were falling down from his face. The head of the honorable Hyuuga Clan was breaking down.

"Tousan, what's wrong?" Hinata asked hesitantly, for she had never before seen her father cry.

Naruto was alerted and was standing up next to Hinata.

"S-She's…" Hiashi was clearly having difficulty saying this. "She's dying" he announced in no more than a whisper, as if he himself did not accept it.

________________________________________________________________________

Hinata stood at the bedside of her mother with Naruto beside her.

Hinata was uncontrollably crying, trying to contain herself to no avail. Her mother…she was…dying.

Naruto was struggling holding back tears as well. Hannah had always been nice and kind to him. The times when Hinata had invited him over to the Hyuuga mansion to play around with her, Hannah had always been welcoming and nice. In a way, she acted like a mother around Naruto, and had taken a motherly role in his life. Why? Why did she have to go too?!

But Naruto wasn't nearly as sad for himself as he was for Hinata. The shy little girl had been heartbroken when Konan left her, and now she had to suffer even more. Why did someone so innocent and pure as Hinata have to suffer?

Hannah was dying the same way his own mother died, according to Nagato. She had successfully given birth to Hanabi, who was now being taken care of my the nurses being supervised by Hiashi, but something went wrong and now she was bleeding and dying. The doctors could do nothing to help her but take some of the pain away…

"Naruto," she spoke to him, in a feeble and weak voice that didn't belong to her. "I have always thought that you were a good boy with a strong and pure heart. I know you are going to become a great and powerful ninja one day, and when you do, promise me that you will protect Hinata, wherever you go."

Naruto nodded his head, tears steaming down his face. "I will. I promise. And I never give up, and I never go back on my word! That's…"

"your nindo. I hope you always keep your way of the ninja Naruto. Now, please, allow me to spend a few minutes alone with my daughter. Good-bye Naruto."

Naruto gritted his teeth in pain as he turned around and walked out the room.

"Hinata," she said turning to her young daughter who was still crying, tightly clutching the fabric of the bed.

"I want you be strong and believe in yourself, understand?" she smiled and said in a kind way. Hinata rapidly nodded her head.

"I know that you will become a strong and proud kunoichi one day, and I expect you to watch over Naruto as well!" Hannah sighed. She was feeling weak. Weakness was creeping upon her with every breath she took.

"Hinata listen closely," she said again, her voice becoming somewhat quieter. Hinata didn't need to be told twice. She knew that for the rest of her life she would remember her mother's last words.

"Regarding Naruto," she began, "remember to follow your heart. I know you love the boy and when the time comes, he will love you too, my dear. But that won't happen until it's too late unless you do something about it. There will be a decisive moment in your life, Hinata, which will decide whether or not you belong with Naruto. I had to go through the same situation once, with your father. My brain was telling me to stay quiet and do nothing when the time came, but instead I followed my heart, and now I'm happily married to the love of my life, Hinata. I hope when that time comes with you and Naruto, that you will listen what your heart is telling you. You have the heart of a lion, Hinata, I'm sure that it won't be hard hear it. Be bold, my beautiful daughter! And know…know that I always loved you so much."

She reached up and kissed the crying Hinata on the forehead.

Just then, Hiashi walked in carrying Hanabi in his arms and asked to be alone with his wife. Hinata listened to him and ran out of the room.

________________________________________________________________________

Hinata ran out of the room to find Naruto standing there, with tear and pain filled eyes looking at her. She ran up to him, and for the first time in her life she hugged him without hesitation as she cried into his shoulder and tried to release all the sorrow that she was feeling.

________________________________________________________________________

_Unknown Location_

The Legendary Three kneeled to the ground, bowing their heads before the mighty throne. Obito was standing nearby at the left side of the man on the throne, in his normal ninja attire and orange mask with his hands held behind his back. At the thrones right side was another unknown ninja, dressed in a blue v-shaped tunic similar to Naruto's. He wore a black cloth mask over his head which covered every thing except his eyes and eyebrows, and he wore another blue mask on his lower face. There was a blue and black sash on the man's waist, holding the blue tunic, and he wore black pants with armored shin protectors. His eyes seemed unbelievably hard and they glowed a powerful ice blue.

The dark man chuckled to himself in satisfaction at the sight of the three bowing before him.

"Good, good. I see I have brought you three to agreement. You must realize that nearly every member of my organization is more powerful than you three. But I see a potential in your eyes, and after you go through my training with my member, you three will truly become powerful."

The three nodded their head solemnly.

The dark man continued. "Tobi, show these three were they will be staying and training. You will be their supervisor until I say otherwise.

Obito nodded and saluted him in a goofy manner. "Sure thing Boss!"

He turned to the three teenagers on the ground and walked away out of the throne room, with them following.

________________________________________________________________________

_Unknown Hallway_

As Nagato, Konan and Itachi were walking with Obito, Nagato spoke up.

"Alright, we have agreed to what you've said so far; now tell us the rest of your plan."

Obito whistled behind his orange mask as he ignored the question. Nagato asked him once more until he responded.

"Well, you three will find out in time. All that I feel like telling you now is that joining this organization is the best option for you guys. While the organization itself has evil plans, you three don't necessarily have to be evil to be in it. I actually know a few people who are not evil in the organization. Anyway, if you want to save and protect Konoha and those dear to you in it, it would be best if you were to listen to me. Besides, now I get to train you guys!"

The three sweat-dropped. Itachi asked another question.

"What is the name of our leader and his ambitions?"

Obito sighed. "I told you, you guys will have to find out later! As for his name, he goes by the name of Dark Lord, Evil King, Boss, and Leader, so on and so forth."

Konan tried getting more information as well.

"Well, who was that other guy there?"

Obito opened the door to the next chamber as they entered another room.

"Oh, him? That was the leader's second-in-command. I can't remember his name right now, but then again I'm not even trying. He's really powerful, even stronger than me, and he is a prodigy from his own clan," he explained.

Itachi frowned. "Usually when I stare at someone with my Sharingan, they go into sort of a daze, but this man seemed completely unaffected by the Sharingan's genjutsu!"

Obito nodded. "Yep. He has his own doujutsu as well, which is one of the reasons why he is so powerful. I wouldn't try genjutsu on him. Or taijutsu for that matter. Using ninjutsu wouldn't be that bright either. He's amazing at kenjutsu as well…hmmm…well then; my advice is not to challenge him until you three become stronger, " he said smiling.

"Wait!" he shouted, stopping in mid-walk.

The three waited for him to explain.

"I just remembered that guy's name!" he continued, now capturing the attention of everyone. "His name is…uh…Sub-Zero, from the Lin Kuei Clan. Yep. That's definitely it, or at least what he goes by. I think I've heard that the title 'Sub-Zero' goes to the strongest member of his clan."

They finally arrived in a training room, and when Nagato looked out the windows, he noticed that they were high in the mountains. Nagato turned to Obito to ask one last question.

"How do you have two eyes, Obito, if you gave one of them to Kakashi?"

Everyone was now intently listening, as they all wanted to know.

Obito sighed. "Fine then, I guess I'll have to explain."

________________________________________________________________________

_Konoha, Weeks Later_

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were sitting on some grass at the park, enjoying each others company with Kakashi who was leaning against a nearby tree, reading a book.

Hinata was having the hardest time trying to adjust to not having a mother. She was just so sad that she had to lose someone so close to her. She now truly understood a little of what Sasuke had felt, that terrible night. He really had the worst of all of them.

But she could never find the time just to sit around to be sad, because Naruto and Sasuke would always be there to cheer her up. They would spend as much possible time with her so that she wouldn't feel alone. She had no idea how to tell any of them how happy they made her feel. While she lost part of one family, it still felt as if she had another family.

Hiashi hadn't taken his wife's death well and he secluded himself with is newborn baby. Hinata hoped that he would turn out alright…

With a snap, Kakashi closed his book and walked over to the three. He had a serious look on his face, which was extremely rare for him. The three kids immediately paid attention to him.

"As you all know, you three will be entering the Academy in a matter of weeks," he began. "So let's review. All three of you are extremely powerful for your ages and you would have no problem passing the graduation exam today. But you need to enroll yourselves in the Academy because you need to earn your ninja ranks and become shinobi. Once you become shinobi, then we can truly work as a team and go on missions together until you are all prepared. Come time for the Chunin exams, you three will pass and become Chunin, and then leave the village secretly.

"Why not take the Chunin exams now? Well, if you three were to become Chunin now, you would be sent out to work on missions outside of the village and other bothersome places and your training time would be dramatically cut down. So by staying in the Academy, you three will still be able to train hard and master your doujutsus and kenjutsus and other things as well. Naruto, you will also begin to study and learn from your scroll upon entering the Academy. I know that I told you not to look at it yet, but once the Academy starts I want you to train yourself and master the scrolls.

"This is the first step to becoming adults. Soon your childhoods will vanish, and you will leave the village and prepare to…"

"Our childhoods vanished the night Itachi killed the Uchiha Clan," Sasuke spoke for his friends.

Kakashi nodded. "That very well may be, but soon you will truly be on your own, only with each other to watch your backs. You will soon embark upon your own adventure, and I will not be there with you to guide you three."

Everybody nodded and understood.

"But until that day," Kakashi continued, "I'll be here to train the hell out of you guys," he finished, eye-smiling.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Namikaze Compound_

This was it, the first day of the Academy. This was truly the first step on their adventure and destinies. None of them knew anybody besides Shikamaru and Chouji their age, so they would be meeting many new people. People who would be forced to change because of their differences…

Naruto woke up in his white under-armor. He had three pairs of them, so every time one would get dirty, he could wash it and wear another. He put on his blue Lin Kuei ninja tunic and sash, as well as his loose white pants and sandals. He had woken up extra early so he could have breakfast with Hinata and Sasuke. Smiling to himself, he strapped on his two swords over his back in their scabbards, with the black belt holding the scabbards going diagonally across his chest. Then, he clipped a kunai and shuriken pouch on his waist and left the door, running, about to go wake up his brother, Sasuke.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hyuuga Compound_

Hinata sat up in her bed and deeply yawned, stretching her arms out wide in a cute way. She walked over to her closet to get dressed. When she opened it, she was surprised to see the blue outfit Kakashi had given her for her birthday, hanging out in front of her, with a note on it. Upon closer inspection, she read the note by Kakashi that had worn her to 'better wear the outfit that I bought or you're no longer part of my team'. She knew that he was joking, but she sighed and decided to wear it anyway. Her mom did say that she looked pretty in once before when she had first tried it out. But she was too nervous to wear it and instead wore the normal Hyuuga attire.

After dressing in the outfit, Hinata felt a lot more…breezy. Her arms and legs were exposed, and while it was nice and warm out, she still felt weary of wearing it.

She walked over to open the window to let some light into her room. Today was the day that she would join the Academy with Naruto-kun and Sasuke! Last night, her father had come to her and told her to try her best and that he believed in her! That was amazing, coming from her hard-to-impress father. But who wouldn't be proud of their child that could take the Chunin exam at the age of 8?

That reminded her, the last time that she had…

"Ahh!!" she screamed as she fell to the ground, looking up at the window that she had just opened.

Naruto was crouching upside down above the outside of the window, smiling, waiting for Hinata to open it. He hadn't entered the normal way, because he didn't want to have to 'plan' a meeting with Hinata like the guards always told him to, so instead he sneaked up to her window. A small mischievous part of him wanted to scare her a little as well.

Hinata go up and brushed herself off. "N-Naruto-kun!" she somewhat scolded him, though she too was smiling as well. "That was mean!"

Naruto chuckled as he jumped in her room. Just as he was about to remark, he opened his eyes and was stunned to see Hinata in her non-ninja outfit.

She looked _really_…pretty…

Hinata immediately blushed as she turned away from Naruto's gaze. _I knew that he wouldn't like it…_

"Wow, Hinata-chan!" he yelled, waving his arms around for dramatic effect. "You look great in that outfit! You're really, really pretty!" he truthfully complimented her.

Hinata, of course, turned such a deep red at Naruto's compliment until she lost consciousness, falling over on the ground smiling.

Naruto had to smile a little at Hinata as well as he saw her smiling, unconscious.

'_Why does she always do that?' _he thought to himself as he threw her over of his back, her head now resting on his shoulders, piggy-back style.

________________________________________________________________________

_Streets of Konoha_

Naruto, carrying Hinata on his back, was walking to Ichiraku with Sasuke who had been waiting outside for him. The young Uchiha had sighed as he saw the fainted Hinata on Naruto's shoulders. The mentioned blonde merely shrugged with confusion and embarrassment. Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation. He knew that letting Naruto go and get Hinata alone would result in her fainting.

________________________________________________________________________

Hinata woke up after a nice and peaceful rest, only to find herself on Naruto's back with her head lying on his shoulders, breathing in his scent. Surprisingly, she only snuggled into him more and hugged him tighter, taking a deep breath and enjoying the moment. She was obviously still half asleep.

Upon arriving at the ramen stand, Naruto placed Hinata on one of the stools, effectively waking her up. They all got ramen free of charge after explaining to the old man that it was there first day at the Academy.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of the Academy_

The three kids stood outside of the Academy, watching the last kid enter the doors and the last parent leave.

This was it, they all thought. The first day of the Academy.

Sasuke had at first thought that they should enter in normally like everyone else, but Naruto had eventually convinced them that they should make an incredibly cool entrance, saying 'that's what Nagato would do'.

After a couple weeks of Kakashi teaching them how to make a cool entrance via jutsu, they had mastered what they needed to do. Perfect timing was needed if they were going to nail the act.

There was quite a large group of children applying to be ninjas this year, but Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata knew that they had been placed in Iruka's class, because he had told them at Naruto's birthday party.

Naruto looked at the back of his hand, sadly realizing that he didn't have a watch.

"Alright guys, I think it's time to go."

They nodded their heads in response.

________________________________________________________________________

_Classroom_

Iruka hummed to himself as he looked up at the group before him, clipboard in his hand. He was currently sitting back in his desk, finishing up marking the attendance of his class.

"Nara, Shikamaru," he spoke to the group. He heard a muffled 'here' from the middle of the class. It would probably be easier for the boy to talk if he didn't have his head down, trying to sleep.He sighed to himself. His class was sure going to be a handful. But his class was said to have the most potential ever. There were the sons and daughters of several of the major clans, many of them being the children of the Clan Heads themselves. There was one from Aburame, Yamanaka, Akimichi, Inuzuka, Nara, but most importantly from the Hyuuga, Uchiha and Namikaze. What a class…

'_Wait, something's off here…' _he thought to himself. He looked up from his desk, scanning the group of kids. He noticed three empty seats in the back.

'_Where are they?!' _he rapidly thought to himself.

"Hyuuga, Hinata!" he spoke to the group. Everyone fell silent. There was no response.

"Uchiha, Sasuke!" he once more spoke to the group. Still…silence.

"Namikaze, Naruto!!" he nearly yelled at the group. No response. There was no _way_ that Naruto and the others would miss there first day of the Academy! The thought was absurd! He wondered if he should report to the teachers office's and check on whether or not…

He was interrupted from his thoughts as all of his students gasped, looking at the center of the room.

A cloud of mist was forming in one specific spot, almost as if…

Suddenly, the mist condensed and Hinata appeared in the front of the room, to the left, with all eyes on her. She confidently turned to Iruka to say her line.

"Hyuuga Hinata, present."

Before any of the students had any time to remark how she had appeared there or how amazing it was, there was another disturbance in the front of the room, this time to the right side.

A perfect spiral of fire vertically facing the students appeared in the front, spinning at a fast pace.

Suddenly, the fire spun into itself and in an impressive flash of flame, Sasuke appeared in his crimson tunic, turning to Iruka.

"Uchiha Sasuke, present."

Once more, before anyone had time to question the amazing coolness of the boy in the black mask and cool ninja outfit, another disturbance interrupted the confusion.

A rotating vortex of wind that resembled a miniature tornado appeared in the direct middle, spinning at an incredible pace that seemingly unaffected Sasuke and Hinata.

Suddenly, boy in a white mask and a blue tunic appeared in the direct center of the column of wind, with his back facing the students, his twin swords visible, forming an 'X' on his back. The winds blew his hair in a mysterious way, and after about five seconds, the wind died down.

Naruto looked at Iruka.

"Namikaze Naruto…present."

________________________________________________________________________

_End_

Another long chapter, yes, but there's nothing wrong with long chapters, right? More to read per update. And, since this story as been updated almost weekly, that' pretty good. This chapter was 52 pages in Word, written in about four days, and then it was proof-read several times. And yes, I do my homework.

Thanks for reading all of this and a special thanks to those who have reviewed, put me in their favorites, or alerted me!

The funny thing is that when I started to write this chapter, I had planned to get through all four years of Naruto being in the Academy. I had an outline of this chapter planned out; the front and back of a page in my notebook of bullet points. (I write extremely small) I didn't even cover four bullet points. Oh well, Naruto stays a kid a little longer I guess.

Yes, I have an outline planned out for the story, but every time I try writing, I end up coming up with new stuff. It's like taking notes on a movie going on in my head; I can't just take out some parts, I have to write what I see. Every scene that I write is not planned out; it just comes up in my mind as I go along.

Yes, Anko came in for a reason besides comedy relief.

Let's go over some key points of what happened in this long chapter.

-Sasuke, Hinata and Kakashi search for Naruto, who has disappeared

-Naruto, dressed in a new outfit, is traveling to Kusa (Grass Village) to find the kenjutsu master that Nagato had once told him about

-Naruto is shortly trained by Shujinko, who trains him and in the end tells him that he has mastered the basics

-Naruto made two twin new swords that will grow with him

-Naruto receives the elemental taijutsu and kenjutsu scrolls

-Naruto encounters Sasuke, Hinata and Kakashi, and explains his plan

-Naruto plans to search after Nagato and the others to find the truth

-Kakashi creates a new plan were Naruto masters the scrolls given to him and stays in Konoha, completing the Academy and then the Chunin Exams

-Naruto and the group return to Konoha

-Naruto and later Sasuke move into the Namikaze estate which is hidden

-Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata turn 8

-Anko is introduced to the story

-Hannah Hyuuga dies during childbirth

-Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata enter the academy

As for birthdays, I don't really care about the exact dates of them, and hopefully you won't be bothered by it either.

Alright, here are the power levels. I'm just gonna say that the ANBU are ranging from weaker to stronger than Jonin. I don't get the feeling that Kakashi was _demoted _to Jonin, after all. The manga never says that he went from Chunin, to Jonin, to ANBU then back to Jonin, does it?

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500**

Characters (after training at the end of the chapter):

Hinata: **85 **(she activated her powerful Byakugan)

Sasuke: **100 **("Uchiha's advance at a rapid pace")

Naruto: **130 **

Sasuke With Kagai Mangekyou: **350 **(he has yet to master it)

Kakashi: **350**

Itachi: **???**

Konan: **???**

Nagato: **???**

Obito: **???**

Right Hand Man of Akatsuki Leader: **???**

Akatsuki Leader: **???**

Yes, Sub-Zero is in my story. Cross-over? No. I do not own that character either. I just added him in because he is unbelievably cool and his powers can be described in the 'Naruto' world. He will be described better in later chapters.

I've got some new links in my profile that are important.

Until next chapter,

-williams5505


	4. Automatic Defenses

Thanks for clicking the next chapter! A special thanks for those who voice their opinions about my story and review, alert or fav it.

Onguard: You make a good point when you say that I underestimated the power of the Hokage. First of all, it was a joke but maybe I should have made it more obvious. Kage level is indeed powerful, and I believe that the First Hokage has been the most powerful character described in the world of Naruto. Sure, the Fourth Hokage could stop the Kyuubi, but the First Hokage could tame_ all _of the bijuu. I also feel like 'Kage' level is more of a formality, like the Sannin. It's not like an actual power rank. For example, Obito is stronger than level 500, but he could become the Hokage. But that wouldn't make him _Kage _level. He'd still be stronger. So to clear some things up, I am going to say the Hokage must be _at least _500. Thanks for your input.

P5yCHO: Sasuke had advanced more last chapter because he has _more _to advance in. Naruto had already mastered the basics of taijutsu and kenjutsu. He can't advance any more in that area to make him stronger because he hasn't looked at his two scrolls yet. _Yet_. He will indeed get stronger.

Power levels are truly confusing, but I like the ones I have for my story right now, so I will keep them as is.

Let's Begin!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The Second Born

Chapter 4: Automatic Defenses

_One Year Later, Night_

"…no," he spoke in no more than a whisper, staring at what he thought was impossible. He turned around to look at his badly wounded friend, Sasuke, who was trying to kill their attackers full of rage. Naruto wished he could go and help his friend, but he couldn't move. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the lifeless body that was lying in front of him.

"Hinata-chan," he cried, tears shamelessly rolling down his face like a river. He grabbed her hand, almost feeling like it was the only way that he could drag her back to life.

He heard a scream of pain behind him and he turned to see Sasuke stabbed in the back with a kunai, on his knees.

It was…over.

Suddenly, a new energy took over him, and the spiral Rinnegan in his eyes began spinning rapidly and glowing in a white light. He looked at the back of his right hand where a golden triangle composed of three triangles with an upside down triangle in the middle had just appeared, glowing brightly. The Triforce. The legendary symbol of power and peace that the first person to use ninjutsu possessed; the Sage of Six Paths. Gold chakra began leaking out of his body, his power quickly growing. Suddenly, he snapped his head up into the sky as his entire eyes glowed brightly of a pure white, golden chakra bursting forth around him, swirling like a powerful vortex. The sheer velocity and power of the spinning chakra seemed to pulse wind in circular directions.

The three Jonin ninja that were attacking the wounded Sasuke were halted in fear as they turned to look at the boy who was now completely surrounded and cloaked with golden chakra. They looked into his eyes, his pure white eyes, and in his iris, where his pupil should have been, a golden triangle made up of three connecting triangles formed. The Triforce.

But their bad luck had just started.

Right in front of them, the boy who they were just about to kill exploded with a black chakra, pushing them backwards. As he stood up, black tattoos of flame enwrapped his body, seemingly stopping when they came halfway across his face. His irises were black, with a red design of stars in them. The Kagai Mangekyou.

Sasuke disappeared only to reappear in front of two of the ninja, kicking them backwards and away from sight. He then disappeared from sight as well.

The remaining enemy Jonin looked at Naruto, his confidence gaining. All he had to do was take out this one last brat…

Naruto's glowing triangle irises seemed to bore into the man's very sole, effectively silencing his thoughts. Naruto's face showed no emotion what-so-ever, which frightened the man and quickly stole all of his confidence away. The gold chakra that was flaring around him suddenly stopped and all that was left was a bright golden glow around Naruto's body.

Naruto spoke up for the first time. "**Impurity**," he stated, in a voice laced with unimaginable power, lifting up the back of his right hand and showing the Triforce symbol that glowed brightly in the night. This was not the boy who had just been crying for the loss of his friend.

* * *

Sasuke continued to leak black chakra from his body, staring at the two dead bodies before him. He was so…_unsatisfied_… with the battle that had just ended. He needed more…more! He had to take out the anger somehow!

The evil black chakra seemed to be intensifying, nearly loosing control. He felt himself lose less and less of his own control, almost as if the Mangekyou was taking over. The Sharingan seal on the back of his neck seemed to be pulsing with power, glowing in a bright crimson.

Just then, Naruto appeared fifteen feet in front of him in a flash of golden chakra. The two legendary doujutsus stared at each other, neither moving.

Naruto, who appeared to have been in deep thought, finally spoke.

"**Impurity**."

* * *

_The Academy, Present Time_

Shikamaru lifted his eyebrow up at the entrance of the three new students. Short range teleportation jutsu? They were just entering the Academy; they shouldn't even know how to throw a kunai! Yet for some reason, he wasn't that surprised. Upon first meeting Naruto when he was playing with Chouji at the park, he had known that there was something different about the boy. _Hmm… For some reason, I feel as if my life just became a lot more troublesome…Naruto Namikaze…I feel that you're the cause. _

Ino nearly drooled on her desk at the appearance of the two boys. They were so cool! And cute and handsome! The amazing way that they entered, and the way that they wore similar outfits with masks covering their faces! _One of them will be mine! It's destiny!!_

Sakura was having thoughts similar to Ino. _That one in the crimson outfit looked so cool! But so did the blonde one with the white mask! They're so handsome!!!_

Shino used his index finger and pushed his glasses up further on his eyes, hiding his shock behind his large collar. _The chakra level of these three that my allies sensed…they're too high! Especially the one in the blue tunic!_

Kiba snorted as he crossed his arms. _These guys think they're so cool by entering the Academy like that? Hmph! They're nothing!_

Akamaru whimpered as he didn't seem to agree.

Chouji shoved more chips into his face. _Man, watching this show makes me hungry!_

Iruka looked at his three nearly-late students, shocked at their appearance. But he didn't show it, of course. He smiled as spoke to the three.

"Very well. You're marked as attended. You three may take your seats in the back," he said in a very teacher-like manner. It was important that he didn't show that he knew the three kids; others might assume that he favorites them. _This group of students will surely be…interesting this year._

Naruto smiled beneath his ever-present mask. _Perfectly Executed!_

He turned around and looked every student in the room with his powerful eyes, sensing all of their chakra levels. No one seemed to have any chakra levels higher than Academy students, which was safe. He looked to where Iruka mentioned for them to sit. There was only one desk in the back row, with three seats open in it. He turned to Sasuke and Hinata and nodded at them.

Immediately, his two friends disappeared from sight and reappeared in the back row, sitting down in their seats. They had used a shushin to travel at insane speeds unable to be detected by the normal human eye. Naruto, however, remained standing in the center of the room, inwardly sighing to himself. _I can't believe that I actually have to do this…_

_Flashback, Namikaze Compound_

Naruto and his two best friends currently sat in the courtyard/training area which lay in between the two main buildings of his mansion. Kakashi was explaining to them things about the Academy.

"Well, since you three will join the Academy in a few weeks, it's important to know what you guys will be up against," he began.

Naruto moaned in boredom. "Kakashi-sensei, we already know everything there is to know from the Academy. _You _already gave us the fourth-year Academy test, both the written part, the jutsu part, and the taijutsu and endurance part. We all achieved perfect scores! All we're going to do in the Academy is sit down and sleep the entire class due to boredom! Why can't we just stay here and train instead?"

Kakashi sighed. "I've already told you many times Naruto that you need to earn your rank, the slow way. It's better than becoming a Genin right now and it's also better than training all right now and taking the Genin test in four years. Going to the Academy will also serve like a renaissance mission where you must gather information on every student there, as well as their power levels. You will have to learn to observe others around you, as well as socialize. I'm sure the Academy will be a great experience for you guys!"

Naruto sighed. Kakashi _was _right, in his own ways. He would just have to endure the Academy, no matter how boring it was. At least he would still get to spend time with his two best friends.

Kakashi sighed as well. Another reason that he hadn't mentioned to Naruto was that if he continued to train the three directly for four years, they would quickly become stronger than him, making him an unnecessary teacher. They needed to go through the Academy, just like Nagato did. He smiled to himself as he came up with an idea.

"Actually, Naruto, the Academy won't be that boring for you guys because I'm issuing a new order to all of you," he announced in a somewhat serious tone. The three kids listened intently.

"The three of you must drop your 'pity me, my family is gone' acts and take up a newer personality. Naruto, I order you to be the nice guy and the class clown. Sasuke, I order you to be the untouchable cool kid of the class. Hinata, I order you to become the bold girl of the class that will stick up for her friends. You three will of course remain public friends, but I want you to learn how to change your personality when the situation arrives."

Kakashi chuckled to himself as he zoned out on the fruitless arguments that surprisingly all three of the kids were yelling.

_End of Flashback_

Naruto closed his eyes and gritted his teeth in concentration. It was his mission to make this act believable. Curse that lazy silver-haired sensei…

Naruto was now the center of attention as everyone had just finished discovering that Sasuke and Hinata were behind them in their seats, and that Naruto was still in the center.

He cleared his voice as he spoke up. "I have detected five possible potential threats in this classroom. There are about thirty students in here. This class is kinda pathetic, right Iruka?" he finished, trying to tick people off.

And that's exactly what he did. The majority of the class started yelling insults at the blonde boy, immediately forgetting that he had appeared in the room using a jutsu, and Iruka was agitated as well that he was referred to Naruto as a friend and not a teacher.

Meanwhile, Naruto had walked up the aisle and started shaking hands with the kids who he mentioned before. "Hey, I'm Naruto, what's your name?" he had asked to several students.

"Shino Aburame," the quiet boy stated, shaking Naruto's hand and feeling wary of how Naruto could sense his own potential.

"Shikamaru Nara, but we've already met," he mumbled, impressed at how Naruto had managed to see beyond his lazy exterior and see his talent.

"Kiba Inuzuka," the dog-boy said, no longer angry but happy that he was considered powerful to Naruto.

"Chouji Akimichi," the chubby boy claimed, after swallowing the chips in his mouth,

"Ino Yamanaka," the lively girl introduced, happy with herself that she was the only girl Naruto had shaken hands with. _He's mine now!!_

Naruto then walked to the back and sat in-between Sasuke and Hinata, who had both noted the people that Naruto had selected. They didn't nearly have the excellent chakra control that Naruto had, and they were unable to sense the chakra level of others.

Once everyone quieted down, Iruka began his lesson.

"Alright," Iruka concluded, "now that everyone knows what is to be expected from the Academy, let's begin by introducing ourselves!"

Several children had recently left the room, upon Iruka's request. The teacher had stated that being a ninja was not fun-and-games, but being a ninja meant that you were a killer. After explaining that the lives of ninjas were fairly short, some children had left after Iruka offered a second choice as to whether or not the students wanted to continue.

"Thank you, you may take your seat now," Iruka kindly said to a boy who had just finished introducing himself. Now it was time to read off of the end of his name-list.

"Nara, Shikamaru," he announced, looking at the boy who had been trying to fall asleep. After a few 'man, what a drag's and 'troublesome's Shikamaru finally made it to the front of the room.

"Yea, well my name is Shikamaru," he began, putting his hands in his pockets and looking up at the ceiling, not interested at all at being the center of attention.

"I'm gonna grow up and become a Jonin, marry a normal woman who's not too beautiful so that she becomes a drag, but not to ugly. I will have two children, one boy and one girl, and then I will retire when my first born son becomes a Jonin so that I can relax for the rest of my life. I will die at a normally old age before my wife, and that's about it," he finished, walking back up to his bed, I mean seat, that was in the center of the class.

Iruka gave the boy a strange look before looking back at his clipboard. "Okay…Haruno Sakura, please introduce yourself."

A pink haired girl who was sitting in the front of the class stood up and walked over to the front. She had recently gotten over her extreme shyness, and she had become more confident in herself.

"Hi! My name is Sakura, and I'm gonna grow up and be beautiful and liked by everyone!" she began, immediately losing the interest of the three students in the back of the class.

Sasuke banged his head against his desk. "That's got to be more than three-fourths of the class's girls that want to grow up and become 'beautiful'! Don't they realize that this is a _ninja _Academy? Pathetic!"

Both Naruto and Hinata nodded their heads in agreement.

Iruka sighed to himself. "Great, so you want to be 'beautiful' one day too. That's pretty original," he told a girl in a deadpan voice who was walking back up to her seat, giggling at the two boys in the back row.

"Alright, Hyuuga Hinata, please come and introduce yourself to the class."

Hinata began to twitch her fingers nervously in her seat. She didn't know if she could be _bold _in front of the class. What if she failed? This was technically her first mission in her career as a ninja. What would her friends think of her if she was unable to succeed? Would Naruto think that she was just as pathetic as the other girls? Would he…

Hinata was interrupted from her thoughts as Naruto squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile beneath his white mask, giving the girl a sudden newfound energy. She nodded at him and walked down the aisle to the front of the class.

Sasuke smirked beneath his mask. "_Bold_, huh? This should be funny," he told Naruto, who was already trying to contain his laughter. Hinata being bold?! Ah, this will be good!

Hinata stood at the front of the class, a confident look in her Hyuuga eyes. If we all remember correctly, she is wearing her blue tank-top with her light blue short-skirt along with the pearl and clam-shell necklace that Naruto had given her.

"My name is Hinata Hyuuga," she began, looking everyone in the eyes. "I like training and spending time with my two best friends, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun. I hate when families or people close to each other have to be separated," she continued while triumphantly puffing her chest out.

The two mentioned boys in the back were trying their hardest not to laugh. Hinata being confident was great for them. Sure, she used to be more relaxed with them but after Konan left her she began to return to her shy nature. Seeing her now acting confident was like seeing Orochimaru visit the Sandaime to give him his freshly baked cookies.

Hinata continued her speech. "I also like cooking and spending time at Naruto-kun's house. When I grow up I will become the strongest kunoichi so that I can protect those close to me," she finished, walking back up to her desk.

Sasuke already stood up from his seat, knowing that he would be called next. Naruto silently congratulated Hinata as Sasuke walked down the aisle.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like a lot of things, while at the same time I dislike a lot of things as well. I especially hate those who think that they are superior just because of what clan they are from, or what bloodline limit they posses. I will become strong, master my Mangekyou Sharingan and then utterly defeat Naruto in combat." Sasuke just stopped there as if he lost interest in continuing and he stared out the window. Naruto lifted an eyebrow as he was curious as to how Sasuke memorized Itachi's introduction speech._ Strange…_

Both Hinata and Naruto stood up now. Hinata walked down the aisle stopping next to Sasuke, who was leaning next to the window. Iruka was about to tell them to sit down, but he realized that right after Naruto's presentation was lunch time.

"Namikaze Naruto," he announced, curious to see the introduction.

Naruto smiled to himself and jumped from the top of his desk to the front of the room.

"Hey, my name is Naruto!" he began, making sure to keep a friendly attitude. Everyone in the class was interested in seeing who he was. Who wouldn't, after his badass entrance?

"I like training and spending time with my two friends, as well as our sensei. I like learning new jutsu and impressing others when I master them. I have mastered the basics of kenjutsu and taijutsu; I have learned an S-rank genjutsu and some ninjutsu as well."

Everyone was shocked, the most being Shikamaru and Iruka. The teacher was shocked because the last time there was someone with as much talent as Naruto…The kid didn't belong in the Academy. What was Kakashi thinking putting three kids so powerful in here?

Sasuke frowned. He had decided not to reveal his talents, but he regretted doing so after hearing Naruto brag about himself. The masked blonde boy continued.

"I have awakened my blood limit, the Rinnegan, and I don't really feel like telling you guys my dreams. But there is one more thing that I would like to show you all! I am wind-natured, having _wind _style chakra, and I have nearly mastered chakra manipulation of the element!"

With that, Naruto summoned chakra in his hand, forming a miniature Rasengan. Before Nagato left, he had given Naruto a scroll with the secrets of the Rasengan, and Naruto had spent some time everyday practicing the jutsu. At eight-years-old, in a couple of months, he had mastered the jutsu that had taken his father two years to master, according to Nagato. Not only that, but Naruto had been trying to add his _wind _chakra into the Rasengan, making it much more powerful. While he hadn't mastered it yet, he was fairly competent with mixing the Rasengan with _wind_. In the end, he had mastered manipulating wind, but he was still mastering putting it into the form of the Rasengan.

Next, he converted the chakra in his hand into wind, creating a small vortex of wind in his palm. This was the part where Naruto was struggling. He couldn't put all of his chakra into the wind without disrupting the technique. But it didn't matter, because soon he would master it.

Naruto then spread his legs apart and faced his palm to the ground, much like Kakashi does when he is forming his signature Chidori. But instead of lighting coming out, a massive wind began forming at Naruto's hands.

Everyone in the room was entranced and extremely impressed at the performance so far, with the exception of Sasuke who was pinching the bridge of his nose, knowing that Naruto was about to do something stupid.

By now, Naruto had formed a ball of wind about two times the size of a basketball at his hands, the wind blowing his hair away from his face and making him look extremely cool. Iruka was beginning to worry if Naruto intended to blow up the entire class with the jutsu.

The entire period of forming the ball, which all took place in about five seconds, was finished, and Naruto smiled to himself as he jumped on the ball he formed with chakra in his feet. Then, crouching down, the ball burst forward at an amazing speed and he zoomed around the room, laughing to himself and causing chaos.

He zoomed up and down the aisles, sometime hopping over students, blowing over everything. He also went up the walls on his spinning air scooter and on the ceiling as well. At one point he grinded across Iruka's desk, throwing up all of his papers that he had recently organized in the air, flying around the classroom.

By now, the entire class was laughing at the sight, including Hinata who was quietly giggling but excluding Shino who had made the decision never to laugh in life again.

When Naruto finally stopped, Iruka had had enough, looking at all of his papers spread across the room. Before he had a chance to yell at Naruto, the lunch bell rang and Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke where no where in sight. _Kuso!_

_Namikaze Compound, Kitchen_

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were all enjoying lunch with each other in Naruto's and Sasuke's house. Kakashi wasn't there because he had been out on a mission with several other Jonin in the village for the past couple days.

All of them found their experience at the Academy to be fun. Hinata was still giggling at how Naruto had 'destroyed' the classroom, while Sasuke was smirking behind his mask. Naruto was not so happy, as he found being the class-clown was annoying. But, if it made Hinata-chan smile…

"So, Naruto," Sasuke began, trying to agitate Naruto, "all this time I thought you were a serious ninja, but it turns out you're just a goof-off!" Naruto steamed in anger as he somehow shoved a piece of his sandwich into his mouth and through his ever-present mask, which still annoyed Hinata. _How is it possible that he can eat with his mask on, and I can't see through it with my Byakugan?!_

The three enjoyed each other's company as they had another hour until lunch and recess ended and they had to return to the Academy.

_Gates of Konoha_

Kakashi gave a sigh of relief as he entered Konoha. The mission he had just been on was fruitless, long and difficult. He, along with several other Jonins, had searched an old lair of Orochimaru, but in the end the slippery man had escaped them once more, leaving them with empty halls. But the worst part? _Anko _was on the mission with him. And oh, did that woman give him a hard time…

_Flashback_

Kakashi looked at the members of his group. He had been assigned captain of this squad in an attempt to investigate the recent sightings of Orochimaru. He looked from one member to the next. Tenzou, Asuma, a Hyuuga, some cool guy with glasses, and…dear god…

His eye finally reached upon the last member of his team, Anko Mitarashi, who was currently throwing daggers at him with her eyes.

"Ah," Kakashi nervously said scratching the back of his head, "I see we're all attended for. Let's move out. I will take the lead, Tenzou; you will take the middle position right behind me. Hyuuga-san, you will take the groups left side and Asuma you will take the right side. Enko, you stay as far behind me as you like until you can calm yourself down," he finished, eye-smiling at the fuming girl.

Tenzou looked confused. "Kakashi-senpai, I believe her name is _Anko_."

Kakashi didn't seem to have heard him as he was currently reading his orange book.

"Hmm, did you say something?" he asked the _wood _style user, still looking at his book. Tenzou merely shook his head. Kakashi's problems had only just begun.

_Days Later, Night_

Kakashi and his group sat around the fire. Tenzou, Asuma and the Hyuuga already were sleeping in their nearby bags. Kakashi was on guard duty, though he only took the position as time to read his book. Surprisingly attentive, his eyes snapped up when he saw movement nearby.

Anko sat up out of her sleeping bag, and walked over to him by the fire. Quietly, she sat across from him, sitting down and hugging her knees, staring into the flames of the fire.

"My name is Anko," she suddenly said, still looking into the fire.

Kakashi merely eye-smiled and responded, "My name is Kakashi, nice to meet you."

For some reason, she didn't seem angry at Kakashi. Instead, she seemed sad and depressed in a way. Kakashi may be extremely annoying at times, but even he knew when to stop fooling around.

"Why did you wake up? Is something the matter?" he inquired though still reading his book.

Anko sighed in response. "I never had an easy time sleeping, not after _he _left. Orochimaru was the only one close to me; I thought of him as a father. But then he turned out evil and left me all alone. And now, when I close my eyes, all I can feel is emptiness inside of me."

Kakashi was surprised that the twenty-year-old woman had suddenly opened up to him. He snapped his book shut after deciding that it was an appropriate time.

"Oh? Well that's too bad, I guess," he responded, not giving her one ounce of sympathy. Anko finally seemed to get angry. "You have no idea what you're saying! Do you understand what I had to…"

Anko was cut off as Kakashi interrupted her. "I have every idea of what I am saying. And from my point of experience, you are a coward," he stated, taking on one of his rare serious voices.

Anko seemed shocked for a moment, waiting for Kakashi to continue. "I was in the same situation as you before. Worse, actually. My parents died in my clan's massacre, my best friend Obito is dead, my other best friend Rin is missing and presumed dead, my sensei who had taken the role of a father in my life died as well. Everyone who was close to me died, and for a period of time, I was just like you. I moped around, and eventually I decided to take on an attitude that I didn't care about anything," he explained. Anko was shocked that the man had to go through so much and seem lazy but…happy all the time.

Kakashi continued. "That was until I met Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata. The three kids came into my life so suddenly and since then they have bonded with me. They have become my new 'precious people', as they call it. And since then, my life has changed in a good way. Happiness has filled me and I no longer have to mope around."

Anko looked down and back into the flames of the campfire. So…he had found new precious people instead of dwelling on the past. Perhaps she could…find new precious people. But…who…

Kakashi sighed. This woman was so annoying. He couldn't believe that he was about to say… "Anko, why don't you join me and eat breakfast with me and the crew the day after we get back from our mission? I'll pick you up at the park," he kindly offered. However, he was a smart man. He knew that right now, she was opening up to him, but right afterwards she would return to her old and annoying loud self…

Anko continued to stare at the fire, deep in thought. After about a minute, she looked up to the Copy-Nin. "Yeah, I think I will join you."

_End of Flashback_

Kakashi sighed once more. He was a strong believer that every little decision makes large effects that change the world. _I wonder how much my future will change now that I invited this woman to breakfast…_

_________________________________________________________________________ The Academy Training Room_

Naruto and his two friends once more entered the Academy after their break had ended. Many of the students were curious as to where the three were during lunch time, as they had wanted to talk to them.

Iruka once more checked to see if everyone was present.

"Alright everybody, quiet down!" he announced, gaining the chattering groups attention, "It's time to take the standard taijutsu test, to see what level everyone is on in the class. I will be pairing up people so they can demonstrate what skills they already know. We will be doing this exercise every Friday, by the way."

Everyone seemed excited about this, except for Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Shikamaru.

"Iruka-sensei," the lazy boy asked, wary of the swords on Naruto's back and the katana on Sasuke's waist. "Will there be any weapons involved?"

Iruka shook his head. "Nope, just hand-to-hand combat. Alright, were going to begin now! Let's see here…uh…Hyuuga Hinata, why don't you go up against…Yamanaka Ino?"

Hinata was uncharacteristically excited. She had seen the looks that the blonde girl was giving Naruto-kun. _Her _Naruto-kun! There was no way that she would let this girl get in her way!

Apparently, when it came to certain things regarding Naruto, Hinata could actually be quite bold.

Ino was just as excited. _Once I whoop this weak girl's butt, then Naruto and Sasuke will see that I'm much better than her, and then they will hang around me!_

Both of the girls stepped up onto the wooden fighting ring, preparing to spar. Naruto and Sasuke were interested to see how Hinata would deal with the other girl. Most of the other people in the class were expecting to see an equal cat-fight.

But not Shikamaru. The young genius had bailed out of lunch period and walked home to get some food over at Chouji's house with his large friend. On the way back, he ran into Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata who were walking back to the school as well. Since they were already kind-of-friends, they walked together and talked about how 'troublesome' the Academy was going to be, while Chouji ate out of his never ending chip bag.

_Hinata is going to easily whoop Ino. I can tell just by the way that she walks. Also, it seems that she hangs out with Naruto a lot, which must mean that she is a lot stronger than me. People who hang out around Naruto appear to be strong, or so I have observed. I just walked back to school with him, and I feel a little stronger and motivated to train! What a strange kid…_

Iruka stepped up to the side of them, raising his hand. "Begin!" he announced, bringing his arm down.

Ino ran directly at Hinata, who had managed to activate her Byakugan without even using hand-seals. She raised her fist in an attempt to clobber the young Hyuuga and humiliate her. But just as she was about to punch the girls face…

Hinata grabbed her wrist, with Ino's fist centimeters away from her face.

For about one second, Hinata stared at the shocked Ino before she put her index finger and her middle finger together and jabbed Ino in the arm, causing the girl to yelp in pain.

Ino backed off, rubbing her arm in pain. To anyone on the outside, it would appear as if Hinata poked Ino, but Naruto and Sasuke knew that she had just used Jyuuken to disable Ino's arm.

Hinata brought up a one handed seal and appeared to be concentrating for a moment, before shouting,

"_Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms_!"

To Hinata, the world disappeared in blackness and only Ino was left in front of her. Hinata was in the center of the glowing ying-yang symbol, in the center of several larger circles with kanji symbols around them. Ino was standing in one outside circles, in range of her attack.

Hinata dashed forward in a blur of speed and faster than anyone could keep up with, she began using her attack on Ino, painfully closing off everyone of her chakra points.

The class was shocked at the brutality of the attack as Ino was repeatedly hit with insanely fast attacks as they all noted down never to fight Hinata in a sparring match. Both Naruto and Sasuke had their doujutsus activated and were watching Hinata's every move. Naruto could see the movements better than Sasuke, but Sasuke only had his first level Sharingan. Both of the girl's friends were amazed that Hinata had mastered the technique.

As the attack was finally coming to an end, Hinata stopped the attack and left Ino standing with a limp body, clearly in a lot of pain.

Iruka decided to end the match as he noted that Hinata could easily defeat a full fledged Genin with that attack. But just as he was about to speak,

"_Eight Trigrams: Empty Palm!_"

With a powerful surge of chakra, Hinata placed her palm near her waist and charged it with chakra before delivering the final blow, which brutally vaulted Ino out of the rink and painfully into the wall of the room.

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Hinata deactivated her bloodline and as her adrenaline faded, she realized that she had gotten out of control and had just injured her classmate. Naruto and Sasuke clapped for her and cheered for her victory.

Eventually, Iruka snapped out of his daze and helped carry Ino to another room and then to the hospital.

_Thirty Minutes Later_

To his surprise, when he returned the classmates seemed more excited to spar. Apparently watching Hinata kick butt made them want to prove themselves. _Hmm…That's interesting._

"Okay then, Ino's alright and she'll just need some time to recover. The next sparring match will be…Uchiha Sasuke and…Namikaze Naruto."

_Outside, Afternoon_

Upon the two boy's request, the class moved outside to begin the spar. Both Naruto and Sasuke agreed to go full out with each other, as they wanted to see who was stronger and who had improved. In Naruto's mind, Sasuke had been getting stronger way too quickly. But then again, he hadn't even started to master his two scrolls yet.

Sasuke was smirking, happy that this would be a great time to prove himself. He knew that Naruto was still stronger than him, but their margins of power had become ever-so-close together recently, and Sasuke needed to measure up his power.

The audience that gathered around was quite large. Iruka was bewildered as to how everyone seemed to know about the sparring match. All of the classes in the Academy, including those up to the fourth year, were sitting down in chairs in a large circle around the elevated outdoor fighting rink. All of the class teachers had wanted to see the fight between the two boys after seeing the after effects of the young Hyuuga's power. The teachers that had gathered around in the hospital wanted to see what happened to the injured Yamanaka student that was covered in bruises. When Iruka had said that one of the apprentices of the Legendary Three had defeated her in a sparring match, the other teachers _demanded _that Iruka place the other two apprentices in a fight so that they could all see their potential.

Apparently, the word had spread around fast and there were many Jonin and Chunin sitting and waiting to watch the events as well. Surprisingly, Iruka even saw several _ANBU _watching the fight from afar. ANBU?! What in world is going on?!

Iruka saw more people walking in to watch the fight, some standing in the back behind the chairs that had been moved outside. _Geez, if any more people come we might have to move this little _sparring _match to the Chunin Exam stadium…I'll wait another five minutes before I start the match._

_Elsewhere in Konoha_

Kakashi was walking around with Anko, who had decided to follow him to see what he was doing this afternoon. The two had surprisingly gotten along better than Kakashi had thought which was a miracle. The copy-nin was currently explaining his theory after Anko finally asked him where he was going.

"Ah, good question, Enko," he responded, actually forgetting the woman's name, "Well, important events happen around important people, like myself, so I just walk where the wind blows…" he finished, earning himself a dirty look.

"'Where the wind blows'? What does that even mean?" she shot back, aggravated at the lazy man. Why was she walking with him again?

Kakashi didn't respond but merely eye-smiled as he continued to walk. Eye-smiling while walking is fairly difficult, so he ended up walking into some strange building door that had stairs, with Anko following him. Eventually, they reached the roof of the building, where Kakashi walked to the edge.

Anko was now _extremely _curious as to where Kakashi was going, until she looked over the edge of the building and saw a large crowd gathered around the nearby Academy. Kakashi smirked to himself. "I told you that important things happen around important people. I wonder who is fighting."

_Outside of the Academy_

Naruto stood at his edge of the large fighting platform standing coolly in his blue Lin Kuei tunic with white under-armor, a white mask, and white pants that were swaying in the wind. Debatably, the coolest part about his was the two swords on his back held in their white and golden scabbards, forming an 'X'. His blonde hair was waving in the light breeze that blew by. Naruto looked around at the crowd gathered around him, sensing a range of chakras from Genin to ANBU. What surprised him was the familiar sense of chakra coming from behind and above him. He turned around to further inspect the feeling only to see Kakashi waving at him from the top of some building next to some other lady.

Sasuke stood with his arms crossed on the opposite side of the fighting rink. He was wearing his crimson Lin Kuei tunic with black under-armor, the black mask, and black pants. His katana was placed on his hip in a standard way, sheathed in its dark scabbard.

Iruka walked up with a microphone in the center of the ring, preparing his speech. He had to use the voice amplifier because there were too many people gathered to hear him with his normal voice.

"Welcome, and thank you all for coming out this afternoon to see the sparring match. On one side, we have the 8-year-old ninja, fresh from the Academy, in the crimson tunic with the black mask, the last of the renowned Uchiha Clan, SASUKE UCHIHA!!" he finished, sounding like a boxing announcer.

The crowd roared its approval, clapping and cheering on the young boy, who was smirking to himself.

"And on the other side," Iruka continued, "we have the 8-year-old ninja, also freshly into the Academy, wearing a blue tunic with a white mask, the last of the legendary Namikaze Clan, NARUTO NAMIKAZE!!!"

The crowd once more roared its approval, clapping and screaming for about twenty seconds before quieting down. Iruka backed off the elevated ring, turning to the two fighters.

Sasuke stared at Naruto in a friendly way, his level one crimson eyes glowing. "You ready Naruto?" he asked, forming his fighting stance of the copy-fist, formally known as the dragon style, standing slightly sideways with his left foot closer to his opponent. He pulled his elbow back behind his head with his clenched fist near his face. His other hand was facing Naruto with his palm stretched out, while his knees where slightly bent. This style wasn't strictly copy-fist but more of Sasuke's style which he found easier to use with _fire _jutsus. Naruto closed his eyes.

"Born ready," he answered, opening his eyes and activating his golden Rinnegan while switching to _wind _style stance with one arm extended facing Sasuke with the other with the other pulled into his side at the elbow facing his opponent, while slightly bending his knees as well. This style best suited his _wind _jutsus. Sasuke was impressed. He knew Naruto mastered the basics of taijutsu, but he didn't know that he knew his own _wind _style taijutsu as well. Wind taijutsu was similar to its element; quick, unpredictable, and always rotating in circles. Never seek to attack, but avoid and evade until the enemy opens himself up for an attack. Wind style mastered, which he had the strangest feeling that Naruto had somehow already mastered it, was extremely dangerous.

"Alright, don't aim to kill, but besides that, begin!!!"

Sasuke started by charging forward and beginning the taijutsu match. Right before he reached Naruto he jumped in the air and formed a flying kick, which Naruto foresaw and prepared to avoid…

Only for Sasuke to disappear in a swirl of fire only to instantly reappear behind Naruto, still in the middle of his flying kick, which Naruto barely avoided by jumping high into the air.

Sasuke grinned as he looked up to Naruto. He had just used one of his favorite techniques, the _fire shushin_, which allowed him short range teleportation while conserving his momentum, which meant that he would still be moving with his initial velocity after the teleportation, or in his case, he was still in the middle of his kick after he teleported. Sasuke liked this taijutsu move a lot because he could combine it with ninjutsu and it made his fighting style so much more dangerous. It also didn't require nearly any amount of chakra; it only required the skill of the user to master it.

Sasuke threw a large number of shuriken up at Naruto so that he wouldn't have time to prepare a jutsu, only for Naruto to disperse in a cloud of smoke. _Shadow clone…_

Naruto smiled approvingly as he repapered at the opposite end of the ring. He had created a shadow clone in the crowd to that he could replace himself with it if he needed to. He knew that Sasuke was limited to using fire jutsus, so he was at an advantage because wind and fire could combine and very well backfire on Sasuke. He formed the palm seal (clapping his palms together) and announced,

"_Wind Style: Compressed Air Bullet Jutsu!_"

Sasuke turned around to see Naruto blast two large balls of air out of his hands coming towards him. With his Sharingan activated, Sasuke cold see the attack coming and had time to avoid both the balls of air by jumping in the air. While he was still ascending, he flew through several hand-seals, ending on the tiger seal, and he put the seal up to his mouth and yelled,

"_Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!"_

About fifty balls of flame rapidly flew out of Sasuke's mouth, heading down towards Naruto. Because there was an audience watching, both he and Naruto realized that they couldn't use any powerful jutsus unless they were angled up in the air or downwards, so that the onlookers wouldn't be hit. So the strategy had to be to launch the opponent in the air, which Naruto successfully planned out and did.

Because Sasuke used a fire jutsu, Naruto, with his palms together again, pushed chakra into his attack and sent another air bullet to intercept Sasuke's attack.

Naruto's counter was successful, and Sasuke was forced to use another fire shushin to avoid to combination of wind and flames that came back at him.

When Sasuke reappeared, the two young ninjas stared at each other once more. Everyone watching was extremely impressed at the battle so far. What was most amazing was that these kids were not even _Genin _and they were throwing out jutsus at each other.

Naruto smiled underneath his mask and said,

"Sasuke, to make this match more interesting, I'm gonna make the terrain…more to my advantage."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he understood what Naruto meant. He quickly dashed forward in an attempt to stop Naruto, but he was too late and Naruto announced,

"_Illusionary Technique: Distorted Reality!"_

_Hokage Tower, Balcony_

The Sandaime sighed peacefully to himself as he leaned on the railing of his balcony, watching his village. It was truly a beautiful day, like many that were known to come to Konoha. The birds were singing melodious songs together, the sky was clear and blue, and he had once more finished his paperwork. Yes, it was that time of the day, when he finished his paperwork early and had several moments of peace to himself.

The wind blew gently across his body, his robes rippling like water. He loved afternoons such as these were he could truly relax and enjoy his job as the leader of his village. Today was actually special, because he had nothing important on his mind, and he thought that he would be able to relax for much more time. He turned to look at the Hokage Monument, specifically at the face of his successor. _Minato, your sacrifice was not wasted, and your son has truly grown powerful. Yes, I believe that he has inherited your Will of Fire and one day he will truly become powerful and take my place as leader of the village and when that happens…_

The Hokage was interrupted from his peaceful thoughts as an extremely powerful wind blew across Konoha and an enormous purple sphere of chakra nearly a third the size of the village appeared in his sight. The Hokage groaned in anger as he realized that his daily two minutes of peace had come to an end. _Kuso, Kuso, Kuso!!!_

_Inside Naruto's Genjutsu_

Sasuke was standing on top of a stone pillar, in the middle of the sky. Looking around him, he saw that there were similar stone pillars around him, within jumping range. The entire audience that had been watching looked around amazed at how Naruto had seemingly transported them such a far distance away, if possible. All of the people were sitting in a circular stadium floating in the sky, looking down upon Sasuke who was standing on one of the floating pillars. ANBU were madly trying to dispel the genjutsu off of themselves, wondering how everyone was caught in such a large illusion.

Sasuke swore to himself. With the larger area to battle, he could now use more powerful attacks, but that meant Naruto could too. And since they were unbalanced in the middle of the sky, Naruto's _wind _attacks would be much more effective.

On cue, Naruto appeared on a stone pillar in opposite from Sasuke, sending giant air bullets at him without warning.

The crowd erupted in cheering once the fight started again.

Sasuke, off balance, had to jump from pillar to pillar while avoiding giant air blasts that were sent towards him. Naruto smirked to himself. He had him now!

Using a shushin, he appeared behind Sasuke in a flash, attempting to kick the boy in the back while he was still in the air. Sasuke managed to turn and block the attack before it landed, though he was still launched farther in air. He was able to flip mid-flight and land on one of the pillars, panting for breath.

"Had enough, Sasuke?" Naruto called out in a sort of mocking way. Sasuke merely unsheathed his katana in response, causing Naruto in turn to unsheathe one of his own swords from his back. The blades, of course, were laced with a protective chakra so that no blood would be shed, but the audience didn't know that. They cheered as the two boys danced together with their swords, clashing and erupting sparks with each blow.

_Up in the Stadium_

Anko clutched the railing in front of her, amazed at the battle taking place down on the pillars. "This isn't a battle of 8-year-olds," she exclaimed, "This is a battle of Jonins!"

Kakashi nodded his head and eye-smiled in response.

Anko still shook her head in amazement while the boys went back and forth at each other with their swords. "What an amazing year. I also heard from some of the people near us that there was another student in their class, a Hyuuga, which managed to use _Sixty-Four Palms _on her opponent. That's a phenomenon."

Kakashi laughed to himself. _My students sure are amazing…_

_Below in the Battle_

Sasuke kneeled down in pain, covered in bruises dealt by Naruto. That's not to say that the fight was one-sided. Naruto was covered in bruises as well, though better off than Sasuke. Without saying anything, Naruto jumped into the center pillar and began to fly through hand-seals. Sasuke followed example, not willing to just let Naruto attack him. He was able to finish his seals before Naruto did, and shouted.

"_Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!_"

Grand fireball jutsu? The crowd went wild at the sight of an Academy student performing such a powerful fire attack.

An extremely large fireball created in front of Sasuke's mouth and was propelled towards Naruto.

The masked blonde smiled beneath his mask. Sasuke had fell for his act. He wasn't really trying to make a jutsu with his hand-seals. The jutsu he had in mind required only one hand-seal, relying completely on perfect chakra control, which Naruto had. Not only that, but it required _wind _style manipulation, which Naruto had nearly mastered. Just as the fireball was nearly halfway towards Naruto, the blonde boy shouted,

"_Wind Style: Heavenly Air Vortex!_"

_Flashback, Weeks Ago, Hyuuga Compound_

Hinata panted as she fell to the ground in exhaustion. She had nearly got the hang of the technique her father had been trying to teach her, the _kaiten_, or the _heavenly spin_. It required for the user to spin their own chakra around them in a protective circle capable of defending themselves against nearly any attack. She was able to rotate and create the sphere of chakra around her, but she had trouble maintaining it. Oh well, in a couple of weeks, she will probably get it down, just like she had mastered the sixty-four palms attack.

She was surprised that she was able to learn all of these Hyuuga and Jyuuken attacks so easily. It had to be something about her Byakugan! It was so powerful, and her vision was almost as good as her father's! But she was so young! Hinata concluded that the night Konan touched her on her forehead, something strange happened and she acquired this new power.

Just as she was about to stand up and try the move again, Naruto walked up to her.

"Hey Hina-chan!" he greeted, giving her a friendly wave. Hinata blushed at the sudden nickname Naruto had given her. Oh Naruto-kun…

"What was that move you were just practicing?" he asked her, sitting next to her on the grass. "It looked pretty cool!"

Hinata looked down at her fingers as she explained. "It's called the _kaiten_, where I use chakra to rotate and defend myself. I haven't really got it down though…" she finished in a sad tone.

Naruto slung his arm around Hinata's shoulders in a friendly way. "Don't worry Hinata, I know that you'll get it soon!"

Hinata, of course, blushed at the close contact with Naruto and passed out, leaving Naruto to his thoughts. _Hmm…I wonder if I can use this technique too, since I have a doujutsu that advances my chakra control. And if I can use my chakra, then I would be able to add wind into as well as elemental manipulation. Hmm…_he pondered, sub-consciously stroking Hinata's hair.

_End of Flashback_

The result was amazing. Turning is chakra into wind, Naruto spun in a circle once with his palms facing outwards. Instantaneously, a giant vortex of wind surrounded Naruto quickly gaining in height, width and velocity. The giant wind spun so powerfully that when Sasuke's grand fireball collided with Naruto, he was protected from the blast. But instead of the fire being dispelled, the fire merged with the giant vortex creating a giant tornado of flame.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide in horror as the fire tornado continued to grow in intensity and height, reaching the top of the air-born stadium and continuing to creep upwards in the open sky.

Naruto, hidden to everyone else, was still standing still in the center of the pillar, with the wild flames spinning around him. His body was surrounded with chakra so that he would keep himself from being burned with the intensity of the heat as well as stay standing on the pillar. His two arms were stretched sideways with his palms facing outward as well. He was funneling a _massive _amount of chakra into the tornado, to keep it under control.

_Up in the Stadium_

Hinata, who had found Kakashi with some other lady, activated her Byakugan in attempts to see what Naruto was doing.

"Ah!" she yelped, closing her eyes in pain, causing Kakashi to walk over to her and ask,

"Hinata, what did you see?" he inquired.

Hinata shook her head in frustration. She had only activated her Byakugan for a second before she was forced to close her eyes.

"The chakra was so intense…I couldn't see anything!" she responded.

Kakashi looked with concern for Sasuke, who was inevitably about to be the victim of whatever Naruto had planned.

_Below in the Battle_

Sasuke swore to himself. He was rooted to the pillar, kneeling down and using his hands as well to prevent himself from being flown off into the flaming tornado. He couldn't use a shushin or a substitute because of all the chakra flowing through the air with the tornado.

Suddenly, the vortex of fire curved down like a missile and headed directly towards the young Uchiha.

All Sasuke could do was cover his face by crossing his arms in front of him and forcing as much chakra as he could to radiate around his body in hopes to protect himself from the pain.

The giant vortex hit Sasuke and he was hit into the stadium wall, where he continued to be drilled in by the flames and wind. The entire stadium shook with the power of the attack, rumbling and threatening to collapse.

Naruto knew that he had hit his target, so he ceased his chakra therefore ceasing the attack. The attack had two ways of destroying his enemies. First, the enemy would be pulled into the vortex of wind and be destroyed there. If they somehow managed to stay put, then Naruto would redirect the tornado like a missile and aim it towards his targets.

When all of the fire and wind disappeared, Sasuke was seen lodged into the stadium wall, which for the most part remained intact. When Naruto had used his genjutsu/time-space technique he had made sure to make the stadium impenetrable for the most part, so his jutsus wouldn't affect it.

Naruto then jumped over to the wall and grabbed his injured friend, who was clearly hurt and unable to battle, yet unburned. When he returned to center pillar of the stadium, carrying his friend on his shoulders, he turned to Iruka.

The Chunin stumbled with himself for a moment before he realized that he had to announce the winner. Who wouldn't be at a lost during the battle? They were supposed to watch two first year _Academy _students fight, but instead the battle was more exciting than the Chunin Exam finals!

He grabbed the microphone next to him, curious to see if it still worked. He tapped it once, earning a large booming sound going through the stadium. He then cleared his throat, stood up and said,

"Winner: Namikaze Naruto!!"

The crowd erupted in cheers and roars and stomping as Naruto bowed to everyone, with Sasuke patting him on the back.

_Outside the Academy_

The Hokage, in full fighting armor, as well as the entire ANBU that were present, arrived at the outside of the gigantic purple sphere of rotating chakra only in time for it briefly waver and then fade out of existence, leaving with it a cheering crowd.

The Sandaime slouched his shoulders and was at a lost for words.

_Outside the Hyuuga Compound_

Kakashi and his three students were returning to the Namikaze compound to spend the rest of the day recovering and relaxing. Naruto's mansion _did _have a very large TV in the entertainment room.

Kakashi chuckled to himself as Naruto finished reporting to Kakashi every event that occurred in the Academy.

"I'm proud of you all for completing your missions, as well as fighting in front of the crowd. A special congratulations goes to you, Hinata, for wearing my outfit as well as being bold. I wish I could have been there to see it!" he eye-smiled while he patted the girl on the head, much to her dismay.

Hinata surprisingly didn't shy off at the remark, but instead she smiled and quietly said "Thank you," to Kakashi.

Sasuke was curious about something though.

"Kakashi-sensei," he asked the Jonin leader who was strolling along with his hands in his pockets. "When I covered my body with chakra to avoid being burned like you instructed, I was surprised when I barely felt hot when the fire hit me. What happened?"

Kakashi smiled when he explained. "The under-armor that came with your guys outfits where very expensive. Why? Because they are fire-proof and ice-proof."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded as they found new appreciation in their gifts. Kakashi turned to Hinata, who was feeling a little left out for not wearing a ninja outfit.

"I got you that outfit, Hinata, because I thought you would look pretty in it," he explained to her, once more patting her head. Curse him and his patting! "I also see that you're still wearing Naruto's necklace; that's pretty cute," he mocked, trying to embarrass the girl further, getting her to blush.

Naruto felt proud that Hinata was wearing his necklace, and he did think that it looked cute on her. He also asked a question to Kakashi.

"Sensei, who was that woman with you when we met up together?"

Kakashi appeared to be in deep thought for a moment before responding.

"Oh, her? Hmm… I completely forgot what her name was," he honestly replied. Names were never his thing… "But, she is going over to eat breakfast with us tomorrow, and I think her name might be Enko."

The three kids nodded as Sasuke walked up to open the Namikaze's secret gate.

_The Next Morning, Naruto's Kitchen, 7:00 a.m._

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were all sitting around the kitchen table, bored out of their skins. Hinata had arrived early that morning to visit Naruto and Sasuke, like she usually does. She doesn't even have to knock on the door, upon Naruto's insisting. After placing a special seal for her on the Namikaze compound entrance as well as his house, he had told her that "My house is your house, Hinata-chan". He had told her that she didn't need to knock because he sensed whenever someone entered the compound. He had a suspicion that it was some sort of special seal that allowed him to be alerted when another presence came into the compound.

Today the three kids didn't have to go to the Academy because it was Hokage Appreciation Day for Konoha. Why on earth they would start school a day before a holiday, they would never know.

"Didn't sensei say that he was going to bring someone over for breakfast?" Sasuke asked everyone, hungry like them.

Hinata responded. "Ano…he never gave us a time though," she pointed out.

Naruto sighed as he wondered what Kakashi was doing.

_Two Hours Later, Kakashi's Home, Unknown Location_

Kakashi yawned as he sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. He jumped out of his bed and walked over to his wardrobe, which was unsurprisingly filled with the same under-armor and Jonin outfits as always. Sighing to himself, he decided to wear something different today so instead he walked to back of his surprisingly large closet and pulled out a nice and comfortable black polo shirt (A/N: Bear with me, I know polo shirts aren't in Naruto's world) and silver upper body under-armor with tan pants. Since it was a holiday, he didn't bother to wear his ninja outfit as well as his forehead protector because he wouldn't really be going on any missions today. He took a long black cloth and tied it diagonally across his face so that it would cover his Sharingan since his under-armor only covered below his eyes and since he wasn't wearing his forehead protector. He wore his normal ninja sandals as well.

As he prepared to walk out his room, he took a glance at the clock which read: 9:00. _Hmm…Wasn't I supposed to be doing something this morning? Oh yeah! I have to take Enko out to breakfast with my team. I better hurry so I make it to the park in time!_

_Three Hours Later_

Kakashi walked out of the bookstore and into the streets of Konoha. He had just wanted to quickly stop by and see if there was a new Make-Out Paradise book in. There actually was, to his surprise, and he had sat down to read the first few chapters of the book before leaving. This, of course, was after he had went to the store and bought himself a medium size carton of milk, because he was pretty thirsty since he had forgotten do drink anything in his house. After he had bought himself some milk, he had went to the training grounds to stare at the KIA memorial stone for another half hour, and then he had followed where the wind blew him and had sung karaoke at a celebration party, which afterwards he had returned to the store to by some more milk, and _then _he had met up with an old friend and played a game of shogi before going to the bookstore. What could he say? He had a pretty busy and important life! Such is the fate of those who are pretty important themselves. He had merely had gotten lost on his 'road of life', as he called it.

_Oh yeah, I have to go pick up that one woman for breakfast! _He chuckled to himself. _No biggie. I guess we'll just be having lunch together then._

_Park, 12:00 p.m._

Anko had just woken up on the park bench, stretching her arms out and wondering why she was at the park in the first place. After several moments, it finally hit her. _That lazy bastard…he didn't show…_

Instead of getting really angry like a few might expect her to be, she became really crestfallen because she had expected Kakashi's words to be sincere. Just as she was about to stand up and leave, none other that Kakashi himself came walking down the trail to her, reading his book.

She turned and stared at him and was about to tell him off when she was silenced at what he was wearing. She was used to seeing him in his ninja gear but now, he looked…handsome.

"Hey there," Kakashi greeted waving his hand at Anko. He snapped his book shut and took a serious look on his face. "I'm really sorry that I'm late," he explained, without one tiny bit of silliness, "but I had gotten lost on the road of life trying to find you," he finished, as if that explained everything.

Anko seemed to ponder upon that thought for a moment. _Lost on the road of life… what does that even mean? Whoa, this guy can be pretty deep sometimes…_

Anko eventually forgave him and together they walked towards the Namikaze estate to pick up the kids.

_Namikaze Estate_

Anko looked behind her only to see the abandoned road that they had just walked on. This was amazing! The clan was truly hidden with seals, like Kakashi explained! _So this is where he disappeared to that one afternoon…_

The two continued to walk down the compound until they came to Naruto's mansion. Kakashi once more placed his little seal on the gate and it opened up for him. He entered the house with Anko, who was wondering why there was something similar to a tower coming up from the middle of the mansion.

"I'm home!"

_Naruto's Mansion_

Naruto ran to the door while Sasuke and Hinata finished up with the picnic they had all made together. Each one of them had worked really hard to make everything. Worked hard as in Hinata did all the cooking, Sasuke put the blanket on the ground and Naruto got some napkins. Yep, they were like a well-oiled machine.

When Naruto opened the door, he was surprised to see the woman who had been with Kakashi when they met with him yesterday. Anko was at a lost for words at seeing the blonde boy who was wearing a regular white polo shirt with his white under-armor masking his face like Kakashi's.

This was the celebrity that had won the battle against the Uchiha yesterday! People were still talking about the battle nonstop, as Anko observed as she was waiting for Kakashi to pick her up.

"Hey, nice to meet you," Naruto kindly greeted eye-smiling. Anko looked back and forth between Kakashi, who was also eye-smiling, and the boy before her. They were dressed in the same fashion, and they looked related, like father and son.

Anko turned to Kakashi. "You said that you were training several apprentices, but_ this _kid is one of them?!" she asked in amazement. Kakashi smiled and nodded his head. _If this is Naruto Namikaze, then this must be the Namikaze compound. Amazing…_

Naruto escorted them down his hallways, past the kitchen, and then further down until they reached the end and were in the courtyard.

_Naruto's Courtyard_

Once they were all sitting down and preparing to eat, Kakashi asked,

"It's really considerate of you guys to make this picnic, but how did you know that I wasn't going to be here in time for breakfast?"

The three kids sweat-dropped at the question. Unless someone was breathing down his neck, Kakashi was always late.

Anko had been amazed when she met Sasuke as well. Kakashi had trained _two _amazing kids! The young Uchiha was also wearing a polo, which was pure read, with a black under-armor underneath. What was with these three and their matching outfits? When she saw that Hinata was a Hyuuga, she had said,

"Let me guess; you're the Hyuuga how demolished that Yamanaka yesterday, right?"

Hinata had nodded her head.

The picnic was amazing as usual. Hinata's cooking was downright phenomenal and everybody enjoyed it. When Anko had begun eating she made sure to pay special close attention to Kakashi to see how he would eat his food. He _had _to take his mask of eventually, right?

Hinata was happy to know that she wasn't the only one agitated to find out that the boys could eat with their masks on. At least this time Kakashi ate the food at a normal pace.

"Alright, now that we've finished eating all of our food, let's introduce ourselves," Kakashi instructed.

The four were currently sitting on a picnic mat in the courtyard of Naruto's mansion. The weather outside was beautiful and a nice breeze was rolling through the garden.

Kakashi turned to Anko. "Why don't you go first, Enko?"

Anko closed her eyes in frustration before she spoke..

"My name is _Anko _Mitarashi, former apprentice of the Sannin Orochimaru," she finished. Everyone looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue. She eventually got the hint and moved on.

"Um, I like ninja stuff, and dango I guess. Not much else really. I dislike ignorant people who judge books by their covers. My dreams are…becoming a strong kunoichi."

Naruto sat up next to introduce himself.

_Days Later_

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata hopped out the Academy window as usual to return to the Namikaze estate to have lunch. Like always, the lessons were boring since they already knew everything there was to know, and more. After their performances on the first day of school, Iruka had offered to give them the Genin test and allow them to graduate, but they all declined following along with Kakashi's plan. Now, just as they were about to travel quickly to save time, Shikamaru and Chouji walked up to them.

"Yo, Naruto," the lazy boy greeted, walking up to them with his hands in his pockets. Chouji mumbled 'hello' while he was getting an early start on his lunch.

Naruto turned around and waved back to him. "Hey Shikamaru, what's up?"

Shikamaru grumbled for a moment and responded, "I know that it's really troublesome, but I'm curious as to where to guys all disappear off to when its lunch time. If it's not a drag, I think we would like to join you so I don't have to hear Ino yapping away at lunch."

Sasuke chuckled as he felt sorry for the boy. Ino _did _talk a lot for no apparent reason, and it became very annoying at times. He responded for Naruto,

"Sure, I think that it would be alright. What do you think, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled beneath his mask as he decided that it would be okay. "Sure, you two can come with us. Do you guys know how to put chakra into your feet so you can jump higher?"

Shikamaru and Chouji nodded. There parents had been giving them some extra training, after all.

"Then let's move."

_Naruto's Mansion, Astral Observatory, Outside_

The five young children were currently sitting on the roof of the astral observatory. Naruto had once more activated the seal that released as stairway which lead on top of the astral observatory. There was not much on top of the tower, so the three children sat on the edge enjoying the view of the entire village.

Shikamaru and Chouji had been constantly amazed upon entering the Namikaze compound. And when they saw Naruto's mansion…they were baffled. Shikamaru had no doubt that his favorite part of the house had to be on top of the astral observatory, which they were on now. After taking a bite of his packed sandwich, he turned to Naruto and said,

"Hey Naruto, do you think that we could play shogi up here sometime?"

_Weeks Later_

"Alright then, see you guys later!" Sasuke called out, waving as he ran away.

Naruto and Hinata were currently standing outside of the Namikaze compound on this beautiful day. It was a Saturday, so they didn't have to go to the Academy. Sasuke had just left because Kakashi had wanted to meet up with him somewhere private in the Uchiha compound. Anko, who had been visiting the three often with Kakashi, had left as well. The snake lady had been becoming more friendly and open to all of them. She even had offered to train them someday, though she had to plan out what to teach them. She wasn't exactly a full Jonin yet, so she still had to train herself and therefore she couldn't spend as much time with all of them. Surprisingly, it only took her a few days to get used to Kakashi's laziness, but it was apparent that she was becoming friends with the silver-haired Jonin.

Naruto turned to Hinata. He was wearing his normal Lin Kuei blue ninja tunic with white under-armor and white pants, while Hinata was wearing her blue sleeveless shirt with her light blue short-skirt.

"Hey Hina-chan," he asked her, obviously causing her to blush. Oh, Naruto-kun…

"Now that we're all alone and we don't have to go to the Academy, what do you want to do today?" he asked her, clearly having fun with the conversation. Naruto was a genius in nearly everything he did, so he was smart enough to know that Hinata was shy around him. Now if only he knew why…

"I-I don't know, Naruto-kun," she truthfully responded. Spending any time with Naruto was more than enough for her…

Naruto appeared to be thinking for a while before he offered up an idea. "Well, it is nice outside…so how about we go cause some mischief around Konoha?!?!" he asked her, hoping that she would say yes. He may be a killer ninja, but he _was _eight-years-old.

Hinata shyly nodded her head yes in response. While causing mischief would never be her first choice as to what she would want to do, she supposed that it would be fun if she was doing it with Naruto-kun

Naruto jumped up in the air. "Yatta! Konoha won't know what it them!" he yelled excitingly, causing a few villagers to look at the two with strange faces. Naruto slung his arm around Hinata's shoulder to her delight, holding his other arm out to the sky as if he was framing a picture.

"You and me, Hinata, we're gonna be the perfect team! No one will be able to stop us!"

Iruka was in the middle of teaching a Saturday afternoon class for the people who needed to catch up on days that they missed. He was sitting back in his desk looking at the twenty students before him.

"Alright," he spoke up preparing to give one of his lectures. He looked at one of the windows to his right, which was open. Since when did he open the window during class?

"Today we are going to be going over some of the important events which happened when…"

Iruka was interrupted as there was a knock on the door. Shortly after, a female teacher walked in, one who Iruka wasn't familiar with. _Hmm…maybe she's a new teacher here. I wonder why I wasn't informed…_

"Excuse me," she interrupted. She was carrying a pie with her, of all things, and she placed it on his desk before walking out.

_That was strange…I wonder who sent me the pie?_

He walked over to inspect the delicious looking pie which had a note on it. It read: _I hope you like pumpkin pie…enjoy!!_

"Well that sure was nice," he mumbled to himself. He _did _like pumpkin pie. He was about to put it away for later when _BOOM!_

The pie exploded all over him, covering his face and his outfit.

The class erupted into laughter shortly after. Who wouldn't, after seeing there teacher covered in pie? Just as Iruka was about to start cursing, another pie flew in through the window at a fast pace, perfectly hitting Iruka square in the face.

The class laughed even harder as Iruka ran out of the room and headed towards the bathroom.

When he rounded the corner, he turned only to have another pie mysteriously fly into his face.

_What in the world is going on?!?!? I got to get out of here!!_

He ran to the bathroom door only to find…

_Nearby Rooftop_

Naruto was rolling all over the rooftop, laughing his heart out. It…was…so…_funny_. The memories of his shadow clones flooded back into him, he couldn't help but fall down laughing. But the clones weren't all his. Hinata had to make a water clone to deliver the first pie because he knew that his clone wouldn't be able to keep a straight face while doing it.

Hinata shook her head with a smile on her face. Causing trouble for others was good as long as she got to see Naruto so happy. If only she could see his smile… But even with her Byakugan activated all she could see was a thin spread of chakra covering Naruto's face. He she focused harder she would only see Naruto's chakra system and not his face…

When Naruto was able to breathe again, he quickly jumped up and hopped over to Hinata.

"Don't stop, Hinata-chan!" he excitingly begged her, "tell me what's happening next!"

Hinata smiled again and turned her all-seeing eyes (besides Naruto-kun's face) to the Academy building.

"Ano…he's just been hit with the clone's pie from the hallway…now he's running to the bathroom, right to our trap…okay, now all of your clones threw their pies at him…he's running away again…"

_Academy_

Iruka ran out of the bathroom after being hit by four pies. There had been four masked ninjas waiting for him in the bathroom, all of whom were holding pies.

He ran to the other hallway, now trying to escape the Academy, only to find a hallway full of about thirty masked ninja's holding more pies…

_Rooftop_

"…now he's run into your small army of clones…he's being pummeled by all of them…he's still being pummeled with pies…he's crawling away now, begging for mercy…your clone threw another one at him through the window…"

Naruto was on the ground, in tears from laughing so much. How could Hinata possibly say all of this with a straight face?!

_Academy_

_Dear God, have mercy on me! Why have you forsaken me?! How have I wronged you?!_

The Academy teacher was crawling on the ground in embarrassment and pain, covered in and assortment of pies. Suddenly, Iruka saw a light of hope. There was an open window right next to him! He stood up and jumped out of the window…only to be clotheslined by a pie to the face that was going about fifty miles-per-hour.

_End my misery!!!_

All of the Academy teachers who were in the teacher's lounge eating lunch fell silent as they saw Iruka launch himself out of a window only to get _nailed _with a flying pie. Seconds later, every one of them broke out laughing.

_Hokage's Office_

The Sandaime stamped the last sheet of paper in his freakishly huge pile-of-papers and he leaned back in his chair, sighing in peace. He looked at his office clock. He had an average of two minutes before some disruption or the other happened. So instead of wasting time to walk up to his balcony and look over the village, he pulled out a hidden drawer in his desk and pulled out the new Make-Out Paradise book that had recently come out. He giggled behind the book for a moment before he turned around to look out the window behind him, only to see…

The entire village up in flames, burning away, with the Kyuubi himself at the front of the village, crushing buildings and destroying homes.

Fear pulsed through the Hokage's heart. He had only taken two minutes to take his little break! He turned to the clock in his room. _Three hours!!! _There was no way _three _hours went by!! It only felt like five minutes!

Suddenly, a Jonin entered the office, bleeding and severely wounded, coughing up blood.

"H-Hokage-sama," he said, spitting out some blood. "We tried to stop the nine-tails, but he was too powerful and we weren't organized. Where were you…we were waiting for _your _orders! We needed you! Where…were…you…" The Jonin fell over on the floor, dead, leaving Sarutobi to his horrors. _I have abandoned my village…_

Sarutobi turned around to look at his destroyed village once more…only to find it perfectly fine again. _Wait, what?!?!?! _He turned around to look at the Jonin who had just fallen over in his office.

The Jonin jumped up and laughed at his leader, and took out some eggs he had been hiding, pummeling the Hokage with eggs before dispersing into nothingness.

Sarutobi just stood there, covered in eggs, with a bewildered look on his face. What…just happened…

_Nearby Rooftop_

Naruto was once more rolling around in laughter. He had just received the image of the bewildered look on the Hokage's face once his clone dispersed.

Hinata was little worried. "Naruto-kun, w-we might have taken that one a little too far…"

Naruto stood up and shook his head in disagreement. "There is no such thing as 'too far'! Who would've guessed that my _Distorted Reality _jutsu could be used for such funny purposes?! Let's get Kakashi next!"

_Elsewhere in Konoha_

Kakashi walked up the street, just finishing talking with Sasuke. That morning, he had found a letter in one of his cabinets that was written my none other than Itachi Uchiha himself. The letter had only read:

_At the main temple of the Nakano Shrine, underneath the seventh tatami mat on the far right side is the clan's secret meeting place. There, you'll find the history of the Uchiha Clan's most powerful doujutsu…the Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan. Tell Sasuke to go there…alone._

The letter hadn't said that it was from Itachi, but Kakashi could easily assume as much. Kakashi had no idea what Sasuke would find in the secret place, or what hidden secrets he would learn about the Kagai Mangekyou, whatever that was.

Kakashi walked up into the Hokage's mission reporting room to speak to the Hokage and see if there were any missions he was needed for.

When he walked in, he was surprised at what he saw.

The Hokage and the entire council where present in the room, staring at him when he entered.

"Ah, Kakashi, we were just about to send for you," Sarutobi greeted to the Jonin.

Kakashi waited for things to be explained.

The Hokage cleared his throat and spoke again. "While you are considered to be a Jonin, we here believe that you still need to take the private Jonin test to become a full-fledged Jonin," the Hokage explained. Kakashi frowned.

"I thought you said that my experience as an ANBU captain was great, and that I don't need to have to take a test?" Kakashi inquired, confused.

Sarutobi sighed. "Yes, that is what I have thought before, but the council has forced me to issue a test to you, which is actually required for all ninja, no matter how powerful they are."

Kakashi sighed to himself and nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, then what type of test to I have to take?" he asked, never before knowing what the Jonin test would be. Every Jonin tests were privately given out to all applicants inside their own villages so that the villages could keep their talents hidden.

The Hokage seemed to have difficulty saying what he said next. "Well…each test is supposed to test the individual…er…problems…with each different person. They are supposed to be difficult and different for everyone. So, we at the council decided that…"

Kakashi stared at the Hokage and the rest of the council with disbelief visible in his one eye.

"You want me to what?!"

The Hokage, who was actually Naruto within his genjutsu, responded,

"Don't worry Kakashi; you have another year until you have to complete this task. That's plenty of time. Plenty of time indeed… Let us never bring up this topic again until you have completed your task, for I will pretend that I do not know what you are talking about and I will deny the plan."

_Later, Evening_

It was evening in Konoha, and the sky was lit with a beautiful orange color as the fading sun retreated behind the horizon. Naruto and Hinata were sitting on top of the Hokage Monument next to each other, enjoying the dinner that Hinata had made. After the two had finished their pranks on several other people, Hinata had returned to her house to prepare something for themselves to eat. Naruto had offered to take her out to Ichiraku, but for some reason she blushed and said that she would rather make something for them. Oh well, Hinata's cooking _was _absolutely amazing, so no loss, right?

Naruto finished the rice ball he was eating and decided to compliment Hinata again. Eating her food might very well be one of the greatest pleasures that Naruto could imagine, after all.

"Hinata-chan, don't tell old man Ichiraku this, but I personally think that your cooking is better than his ramen," he told her, as both were packing up and finishing up their meal together. Hinata blushed at the comment, which meant a lot to her. There were times when she wondered whether or not Naruto would ever like _her _as much as he likes ramen, so this was a good start!

"Y-Your welcome, Naruto-kun," she responded, really happy that she was able to make him happy.

Naruto yawned as he stretched his arms out, looking at the sunset. He was getting pretty tired, which was a rare feeling for him. Usually, he could train and train for long periods of time without feeling fatigue, like when he and Sasuke go through the endurance training the Nagato had set up which was still in the training grounds. _Hmm, maybe I should see if Hinata can complete the training course sometime soon. The last time she tried was a couple of months ago, and she nearly got it! That also reminds me, I should start training Hinata in the ways of kenjutsu…_

"Hey Hinata," he asked her as she finished packing up her mat and materials. She quietly hummed 'hm?' as she waiting for him to continue. "How would you like me to train you in some kenjutsu styles? I think I have a scroll which Nagato left with his staff that teaches advanced and simple forms of how to use the staff, which you have. We could spend some time at my house and work over the forms together. What do you think?"

Hinata nodded her head. "I would appreciate that, Naruto-kun."

Naruto gave her a big grin behind his ever present mask. "Great! Let's head out to my place now. I have something I want to show you!" he exclaimed, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the edge of the monument, causing her a moment of joy at feeling his hand enwrapped around hers.

When they reached the edge, Naruto kneeled down in front of her and turned his head to speak to her. "Hinata-chan, jump on my back and let me give you a piggy-back ride to the estate! Nagato used to carry me around, and it was so fun! He said that it was an art to be able to carry another's weight on your back and be able to maneuver freely. Let me try it out! You gave leave your stuff here because I don't think anyone will touch it."

Hinata stood there and blushed for a moment, unsure of what to do. Naruto told her again "Come on, just get on my back!"

Hinata, still blushing, slowly walked up to Naruto, pressing her fingers together in a bad habit. Slowly and carefully, she pressed her body against Naruto's and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was closing her eyes, blushing but enjoying the moment.

Naruto shifted around a little bit, and stood up, grabbing her legs and saying to Hinata,

"Alright, make sure you hang on tight! Use chakra if you need to. Here I go!!"

With that, he jumped high up over the cliff, enjoying the wind while Hinata couldn't help but scream a little because she was not in control.

Beginning to descend the high height, Naruto fell parallel to the cliff and began to run down the distance, with chakra in his feet. Hinata opened her eyes, which had been closed, and watched as they plummeted to the ground…

Only for Naruto to spring of the mountain and onto a roof top. He ran along the length of the rooftop before jumping sideways to another one above it, and so on and so forth.

Hinata actual found that…she enjoyed the experience. It was all overwhelming, but it was amazing at first. It was like a roller coaster, going back and forth, up and down and sideways when Naruto would sometimes run along the side of a wall. The wind blowing against her face, the laughter of Naruto, being close to Naruto and hugging him tightly…

Naruto jumped down into a crowd of people and weaved through the villagers at high speeds, sometimes nearly avoiding people and causing them to stumble, which Hinata would later turn around and say, "Sorry!" as the villagers gave the couple strange and dirty looks.

Naruto found that he enjoyed the experience as well. The free feeling, the wind, Hinata holding on to him from behind…_Where did that come from? _Well, he did enjoy the moments when he performed a dangerous maneuver and Hinata let out a tiny yelp of shock, and the moments were she would laugh her beautifully sweet laugh into his ears and hold on to him tightly…

Naruto eventually ran to the side of Konoha and began running up the wall, which was a lot harder with someone else's weight on your back. But he pushed through and reached the top, running along the side of Konoha, giving Hinata the view of the forests and the village.

Naruto soon reached the street in which there was the seal to open up the secret gateway behind the Hyuuga Compound. He ran down the length and opened the gateway when he reached the bottom. Hinata had thought that it was time for her to get of, but Naruto squeezed her legs once and ran forward into the compound.

_Naruto's House_

Naruto ran through the main hallway with Hinata still giggling on his back and he ran into the kitchen. He jogged up to the side, pressing his hand on the seals and activating the stairways which fell into place. At the top of the spiraling stairs there was an opening in the ceiling which he would go through. He took a deep breath and began running up the stairs.

_Astral Observatory_

Naruto and Hinata jumped through the doorway and shortly after the secret passageway closed itself. The very large room was circular and in the center of it, there was a massive telescope pointing to the ceiling. There were also several sofas nearby, to comfort whoever was spending time in the observatory, as well as a small refrigerator which also had a seal on it. On the side of the circular walls, there were windows which were currently draped, trying to contain the late evening sunset light which was flooding in.

Naruto walked forward a little bit and pressed his hand on another seal which activated another stairway to slide out into place, and at the end of the stairway part of the ceiling opened revealing an entrance.

_Astral Observatory, Outside_

Naruto, still holding Hinata on his back, walked over to the edge of the astral observatory were there was an elevated porch swing set up for about three people. Naruto took Hinata and swung her over his back making her land on the swing. Shortly after, he jumped up and landed next to her.

"Yesterday when I was looking through some of the scrolls that I brought here, I found this one in a seal, so I set it up here because I thought it would look nice. What do you think? Sasuke thought it was pretty cool."

Hinata's eyes were wide as she stared at the beautiful sunset that was falling over Konoha in the last minutes of the evening. It was probably one of the most stunning things she had ever seen.

"N-Naruto-kun, it's amazing!" she truthfully replied.

Naruto laughed to himself as he used his feet and pushed the porch swing back and forth.

"Great! I knew you'd like it!"

Oh, Naruto. If only the blonde boy knew how romantic he was being right now. But as fate (Masashi Kishimoto) would have it, he was as dense as a rock.

Hinata, however, was sure that if there was a heaven, she would be allowed to watch sunsets with Naruto in it. She was madly blushing as Naruto scooted next to her and their shoulders were touching. This evening was truly beautiful.

As the sun began to complete its journey around the horizon and the evening light began to fade into night's serenity, Hinata's eyes began to close due to exhaustion as she fell asleep on Naruto's shoulder, causing him to smile. He, feeling tired as well, decided that he might as well fall asleep, which he did.

Sasuke, just returning from the Uchiha compound, was searching frantically for Naruto. There were some secrets that he had discovered that Naruto would like to know immediately. He had searched the entire house for Naruto, and eventually, he went up to the astral observatories roof and saw him sleeping with Hinata on the porch swing. Deciding not to disturb them, he left them there to sleep and decided that he would have to talk with Naruto in the morning. _Hinata would like to know too, but she'll have to learn after she wakes up and faints…_

_The Next Morning_

Hinata, with her eyes still closed, woke up that morning with the greatest feeling. She had just had the most relaxing and amazing sleep that she could remember. She took a deep and peaceful breath through her nose and sighed happily as she exhaled. That smell, that wonderful smell! If only she could wake up every morning and feel like this! She hugged whatever she was holding tighter and snuggled in deeper to it, calmed by the slow rise and fall of the objects…breathing? Surprisingly, she heard a yawn…that wasn't hers…

"Good morning, Hinata-chan! I guess we fell asleep here last night!" Naruto said, absolutely comfortable with the situation.

Hinata's eyes snapped open as she realized that she was holding on to Naruto. She…had slept on Naruto… She was still holding Naruto…

Hinata snapped out of her little daydream and screamed before passing out, true to Sasuke's word. The last things she heard were the fading sounds of "Hinata-chan? Hey, Hinata-chan!" as she smiled and passed into unconsciousness.

_Naruto-kun…_

_Later_

Hinata had returned home, after breakfast of course, to return to her house and explain to her father why she didn't return home yesterday. Hopefully he would understand. Her father was not compassionate like he used to be, but he was understanding.

Sasuke, with a serious look on his face, spoke to Naruto,

"Naruto, I need to talk with you about what I discovered yesterday when Kakashi summoned me. Let's go to the kenjutsu training room to talk."

_Kenjutsu Training Room_

Naruto and Sasuke were sitting down facing each other on the elevated wooden fighting platform. Sasuke pulled out a scroll from his crimson tunic and threw it over to Naruto.

"Yesterday, when Kakashi-sensei summoned me, he said that he had found a scroll in his cabinet from written from Itachi."

Naruto's eyes widened. A letter from Itachi! "What did it say?!" he asked, eager to find out what Sasuke knew.

"He told me to go to the main temple of the Nakano Shrine, underneath the seventh tatami mat on the far right side to the clan's secret meeting place. I went, and when I walked down to the secret place, I found a scroll about the history of the Kagai Mangekyou. _My _Mangekyou."

Naruto nodded in understanding as he opened the scroll. The first thing that he saw was the image of the Kagai Mangekyou, the red star. Sasuke spoke up to Naruto. "Read it out loud. I haven't read it yet, because I wanted to read it with you."

Naruto nodded again. "Alright, here goes…"

_The Kagai Mangekyou. The most powerful Sharingan that any Uchiha can possess. But not any Uchiha can posses it in theory. The legendary eye was said by master Uchiha himself that it was a gift to him sent by the divinities themselves. He also said that the only way for the 'Evil' Mangekyou to be activated by others was for the user to undergo extreme mental suffering, losing everything and everyone close to him, in an instant. The only way for this to happen is to suffer from the effects of Tsukuyomi. In further detail, the user must suffer from the Tsukuyomi that is from his own brother._

Naruto stopped reading and looked at Sasuke, who had his eyes open in shock. "T-that's what Itachi did to me!" he told Naruto, who was confused. "He made it seem like everyone close to me had died, even though you and Hinata were actually alive! But…why would he do that if he knew that I would gain the Mangekyou?"

Naruto didn't understand either. He continued to read,

_There can be only one Kagai Mangekyou activated at a time. Only one person in the world can have it; no two people can have the eyes at the same time. Hakoda Uchiha, the first Uchiha and the one who started the clan, was the first and only person to this date to activate the evil eyes. He has written that the Kagai Mangekyou is an 'evil' eye which will try to overcome the user __three__ times, for the first three times that it is activated. If this happens, the Mangekyou will completely take over the user forever and attempt to conquer the world in evil. But every time the user overcomes the Mangekyou, his normal Sharingan will upgrade a level. For the first three times the user activates the Kagai Mangekyou, the eye will attempt to overcome the user. The Kagai Mangekyou will also enhance the users normal Sharingan, making the users level two Sharingan just as powerful as a normal Uchiha's level three Sharingan. If the user overcomes the Mangekyou the third time, the user will have complete control over the Kagai Mangekyou, like Hakoda did._

Naruto stopped again and turned to Sasuke. "Did you hear that!?" he exclaimed, worried for his friend. "It said that your Sharingan will try to take over your body _three _times!"

Sasuke nodded warily. He hoped that he had the power to overcome each attempt.

Naruto continued to read,

_While normal Mangekyou Sharingans have two special attacks, such as Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, the Kagai possesses each Mangekyou's special attack, giving it nine special attacks, since there are four types of Mangekyou Sharingans and it has its own original attack. When the user of the Kagai Mangekyou first activates the Mangekyou, a seal in the design of a Sharingan will appear on the back of the person's neck. This seal provides the user a black chakra when the Mangekyou is activated, and every time the Mangekyou is activated, tattoos of black flame will spread throughout the body, increasing the user's physical abilities. As for the nine types of special attacks that the user will have, it is unknown. All other Mangekyous are simply weaker forms of the Kagai Mangekyou._

_  
_As Naruto read on, Sasuke subconsciously touched the Sharingan seal that was in fact on the back of his neck.

_Hakoda Uchiha, the first ever Uchiha, was known to be the person who created genjutsu during the time when ninjas were just basic fighters who used swords and shuriken. He worked with a team of two other ninjas, which started the current tradition of having Genin work in a team of three with one girl. Hakoda's partners were the legendary Gyatso Namikaze, the first Namikaze otherwise known as the Sage of Six Paths, the creator of ninjutsu, and the female Kyoshi Hyuuga, the first Hyuuga and creator of taijutsu._

_The Kagai Mangekyou is an automatic defense mechanism; it will first be activated if the user is in a dire situation. After the first time, it can be activated by sending a large amount of chakra into your eyes. _

_Sasuke, you will learn more eventually, and when the time comes, you will gain perfect understanding. Overcome the Kagai Mangekyou; control its power, which I have entrusted to you,_

_-Itachi_

Naruto closed the scroll and looked up to Sasuke, who was closing his eyes in thought. "He said…that he entrusted this power to me…Why? Why would he kill my clan and then give me this power? I'm so confused!"

Naruto agreed. "This only further pushes my belief that Nagato, Itachi and Konan had a good reason to kill your clan and leave Konoha. Itachi gave you the most powerful Sharingan, Nagato gave me the Rinnegan, and Hinata has the Byakugan. Ugh, I can't wait until we find out the truth of all of this!"

_Training Grounds_

Anko and Hinata stood in the middle of the familiar training grounds which still had the giant waterfall and lake which Nagato created. Anko had been training Hinata personally recently because she felt out for the girl and thought that her own skills were similar to the skills of the young Hyuuga. Hinata, as a gifted _water _style user, took her Jyuuken to the next level and instead of using the form for quick jabs; she made her own Jyuuken where she would flow smoothly like water around the opponent and then attack. Also, instead of blocking or avoiding attacks at her, she would redirect them at her opponent like bending water or simply flow around them.

Bending and flowing…these techniques of fighting would work well with snake style fighting, which Anko mastered, so she decided that she would teach Hinata some snake style attacks and defenses to help improve her water style Jyuuken.

"Alright Hinata, let's review all of the attack and defense forms that we've learned to far, and then we'll move on to more advanced stuff, okay? So let's go!" she shouted enthusiastically. Hinata nodded and replied, "Hai!"

_Kenjutsu Training Room, Weeks Later_

Naruto smiled as Hinata completed the last offensive form of the staff. She was coming along quite well, a lot better than Naruto had thought she would. He had already mastered the style of staff kenjutsu, as Nagato had once taught him, but he had no doubt that if Hinata continued at her fast learning pace, she would soon overcome him.

_Kenjutsu Training Room, Weeks Later_

Naruto swore to himself. Hinata had just mastered the last defensive style of her staff kenjutsu style. He liked being a teacher, but now Hinata was probably better than him at it! She had been improving so much recently that she even was able to complete the endurance training now with him and Sasuke!!

"Hinata-chan, all I can say is that you are truly amazing. I had no idea that you could possibly become this talented at a style so fast! Not only that, but you've added your own flowing_ water _style movements into it, unlike my quick _wind _styles!" he told her, causing her to blush at all the special praise she was getting. Let me rephrase that; she was blushing at all the special praise _Naruto-kun _was giving her. Her father and members of the Hyuuga Clan praised her skills in Jyuuken all the time, but when Naruto did it, she felt a warm feeling pulse and spread through her heart and body.

Naruto smiled at her even wider behind his ever present white mask.

"Well, now that I've no more to teach you, from now on, we will be only sparring with our staffs, which will improve both of our skills. And once I can't stand a chance against you with my staff, then I will have to switch to my swords! So, let's get ready to fight!"

That said, Naruto spun his staff around impressively, bending over and spinning it behind his back and over his head, before he fell into his stance were he put his weight into his right foot, leaning back, put his left foot forward and extended his left palm outwards towards Hinata. He held his staff in the center behind his back with his right hand.

Hinata nodded her head and smoothly swung her staff around as well, and though she did it slower than Naruto's quick spins, her maneuvers were more intricate and smooth. When she fell into her stance, she held the staff in a comfortable way pointing it towards Naruto with her left hand in front and her right hand behind her.

"Let's go!"

Since Naruto brought air style to his staff kenjutsu, he merely circled around Hinata instead of attacking directly.

Hinata, with perfect footing, jogged to Naruto and reverse swung her staff at him, starting the duel.

_Weeks Later, Courtyard_

"Let's go!"

Hinata, using advanced chakra control ran along the side of a nearby stream holding her staff which was skimming the surface, Byakugan activated.

"_Water Style: Water Wave Jutsu!_"

Without using any hand-seals, she flung her arm and staff upwards and with it came a large wave of water which hurtled towards the smiling Naruto.

Naruto spun his staff at high speeds and created a shield of wind in front of him, saying

"_Wind Style: Air Shield!_"

When the wave inevitably crashed into him, Naruto was protected with the rapidly rotating air shield which sent the water off in different directions.

He then jumped into the air and with one hand holding his staff, and the other hand forming the half-ram seal, he shouted,

"_Wind Style: Compressed Air Bullet Jutsu!_"

He sent three medium sized wind bullets at Hinata, who summoned another wave in front of her to protect herself from the blast, which she successfully did. With her chakra in the water, the air bullets exploded into the wave but did not harm Hinata.

Naruto smiled as he landed on the ground. Hinata had truly mastered her staff style. She was able to effortlessly combine _water _style attacks into her offensive and defensive forms, sometimes to the point where she wouldn't even need to use hand-seals, which was an incredible feat! A jutsu is not truly mastered until the user can perform in with one hand-seal or no hand-seals, which Hinata had shown. Naruto could perform the _air bullet _jutsu with only using one seal, and he got down to the point where he could create one shadow clone without using hand-seals.

All hand-seals do to perform jutsus are that they help manipulate the necessary and specific chakra within the users body to perform the jutsu. But if the user could manually force his or her chakra inside their bodies in a specific pattern, then hand-seals were not necessary.

Easier said than done.

The shadow clone technique only requires one hand-seal, which changes Naruto's chakra flow in a specific way, and Naruto learned how to make his chakra flow in the specific way without having to use the hand-seal. To perform jutsu through a weapon, all that is required is that the user must push his chakra through the weapon as well, which both Naruto and Hinata had done.

Performing jutsu without seals is a specialty that those from the Namikaze Clan possessed because of their Rinnegans. It is easier to perform jutsus without seals if the user has a doujutsu that can help mold the chakra specifically.

Naruto, Rinnegan activated, began molding chakra within his body and charged at Hinata.

_Next Friday_

Iruka cleared his throat and spoke up.

"Alright everybody, lets quiet down and get started. Today's sparring matched will be special because we will be focusing on kenjutsu. I hope that everyone brought non-lethal weapons with them or else they will have to use the dulled kunai which I have collected. Let's begin! The first match is…Hinata Hyuuga versus Ino Yamanaka!"

Ino groaned to herself. Sure, she had become somewhat of a friend to Hinata, but Hinata was still abnormally powerful and she was going to get her butt whooped. Hinata and Ino also didn't have the friendliest relationships because Ino was always flirting with Naruto, who Hinata liked.

Hinata smirked to herself as she spun her wooden staff around. She might be friends with Ino, but that flirty girl is going to learn to stay away from Naruto-kun!

_Next Friday_

Iruka nodded as the last pair finished sparring. From some reason, his class was much better at taijutsu and kenjutsu then any other classes their year. Iruka had a guess as to why. The students saw how powerful Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were, so they all trained harder so they could improve themselves.

Iruka smirked. _This class is surely becoming…interesting. Naruto Namikaze…I have no doubt that you caused this good change in everybody._

_Training Grounds_

Kiba swore to himself as he fell to the ground in exhaustion. Man these kids were crazy! Shikamaru had claimed that they went through an impossible work-out every morning before the Academy, and when Kiba asked to join them, he thought that he would be able to keep up. _Who the hell runs around the outer walls of Konoha five times before going through that ridiculous looking endurance course?! Kuso! I'll have to train harder before I ask them again!_

_Early in the Morning_

Naruto and his two best friends went through their daily morning workouts with Kakashi supervising them. Anko didn't join them in the mornings because she claimed that she wasn't a 'morning person'. Kakashi tried to convince her every time they see each other that training in the morning is refreshing, and he vows to get her to join them eventually.

Unlike usual, their normal workout didn't go as planned this morning. Kakashi had told the children that they had to wake up an hour earlier, at 5:00 a.m. to train this morning because he had to go on a private mission that morning and would have to leave early. To the group's surprise, they found that they weren't alone when they stretched to run on top of Konoha's outer wall. A strange man in a green spandex outfit came jogging over to them as they were finishing their stretching.

"Yosh! It seems that the Flames of Youth burn brightly in these people if they are out training this early! …Kakashi?!?! Is that you?!?!?!?!?!"

Kakashi started to panic as his Jonin mind kicked in and began looking for a way to escape. _No…Not him!!!_

Maito Gai came jogging up next to the group. Naruto politely introduced himself.

"Hey, my name is Naruto Namikaze, and these are my two friends Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuuga! It seems as if you already know of our sensei, though."

Gai gave a thumbs up and smiled at the group, the early morning light reflecting brightly off of is teeth. "Yosh! How could I not know you three?! Your Flames of Youth burn brightly as you have shown in the Academy and the sparring match between each other that one day!! It is an honor that I can finally meet such youthful people! Kakashi, I am jealous of you that you have raised such fine students. Because you are already a sensei, I must become a better sensei! You will not beat me, Hatake!!!!"

With that the strange man ran off into the sunrise in the other direction. Kakashi let go of the breath he had been holding. _Thank God he didn't challenge me to something…_

Naruto looked on at the disappearing image of the man with curiosity. _Flames of Youth…that sounds interesting. Almost like the Will of Fire, but phrased differently. I like that phrase, Flames of Youth…_

"Kakashi-sensei, who is that man? How did he know you?"

Kakashi sighed as he responded. "He has been my 'eternal rival' since young. He's actually a good friend of mine, but he gets really out of hand…If you are lucky Naruto, you will never have and eternal like mine. Just pray to God that you don't…"

_Nearby Training Grounds_

Nine-year-old Rock Lee sneezed as he continued to pound the unlucky log that was in front of him. After seeing the sparring match between the famous Namikaze Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke he had vowed to train harder than ever before, no matter that he couldn't perform ninjutsu or genjutsu. If he couldn't perform those ninja arts, then he would just have to be amazing at taijutsu!

He stopped as he turned and saw a nearby figure running towards him out of the sunrise. The way the sun shined brightly behind him made him look like some sort of angelic figure.

When the man approached Lee, the young boy fell to his knees at the sight of the godly figure, smiling in the sunrise. The man appeared to be thinking to himself and said,

"I sense that the Flames of Youth burn brightly with this one." He turned to Lee and gave him a thumbs up and said, "You, come with me and grow strong! Together, as sensei and student, we will rule over all others and become the Green Beasts of Konoha!!"

Lee openly wept at the beauty of the scene before him. He had no doubt that God himself must have sent this angel down to him.

"Y-Yes Sensei!!!"

_Kenjutsu Training Room_

Naruto sighed to himself as he looked over the advanced forms his scrolls taught him about elemental taijutsu and kenjutsu. He had found difficulty learning any of the forms, and both scrolls had said to him: _Only he who masters all elemental chakras will be able to master the styles._

Naruto sighed in frustration as he realized that he wouldn't be mastering the taijutsu styles and kenjutsu styles any time soon. _Master all of the elements? I've only mastered wind; that leaves me with four more elements to master! Water, Earth, Fire, Lightening. How am I going to master those elements? The only reason that I mastered the element of wind is because Nagato has been teaching me the basics for so long. I'm even at the point where I've mastered Rasen Shuriken, the ultimate form of Rasengan! There isn't even a master of any of the elements in Konoha! Kakashi himself hasn't mastered lightening to it's fullest extent. And while Asuma knows more wind jutsus than I do, he can't change his chakra to wind as good as I do. What am I going to do?_

The only useful thing Naruto had found out of the scroll was the forms of _wind _style kenjutsu and taijutsu. He would have to spend more time thinking about this.

Naruto sat still in the center of the elevated wooden platform as he practiced his chakra control, weaving intricate styles within his body. He activated his golden Rinnegan so that he could see the chakra inside of him. Once more, he saw the new golden chakra swirling throughout his circulatory system. When he focused harder, he noticed that the source of the chakra seemed to be coming from his right hand._ Hmm, that's strange. I've never noticed that before…_

Also, when he focused on his belly, he could see a red chakra being suppressed by the golden chakra. He had researched the reason as to why he might have another chakra within his body, but he had not found anything…that he was willing to accept. He didn't think that he had another seal placed on his body that would provide him another chakra, and he didn't think that he had a demon sealed within him. Wouldn't one feel a little…demonic if they were to have a demon inside of them? Besides, the only demon that had come to Konoha was the Kyuubi, who had been killed by the legendary Yondaime, so that couldn't be it. Ugh, why was it that he never seemed to be getting any answers?!

However, some important facts that he did receive was that the scroll had stated that there were only two people in history to ever completely master all of the elements, to the point where they didn't even need to use hand-seals to perform jutsus. Both were Namikazes. The first one was a name that Naruto recognized: Namikaze Gyatso, the first Namikaze and creator of ninjutsu. That made sense; if one was to create all forms of ninjutsu, one had to be a master at them all, right? The next name was someone who Naruto had never heard before. Namikaze Rinku…why did that name sound so familiar if he had never heard of it before? Namikaze Rinku was known to be stronger than Gyatso, it said, and was famous for obtaining the most powerful Rinnegan which was golden, and when fully activated, his eyes changed into the shape of the Triforce, which was shown below. The 'Triforce', as it said, was a golden triangle made up of three triangles connecting to each other.

Why _had _he never heard that name before? Namikaze Rinku …shouldn't someone who mastered all of the elements be a legend and mentioned throughout history? Why didn't they teach about this guy in the Academy? Strange…

_Unknown Location_

Obito clapped his hands as he signaled for the three to listen to him. "Alright, gang, good work today! Each of you are rapidly improving and are much stronger than you were when you arrived here. That's great! I must be an amazing sensei!!" he excitingly said, very proud of himself.

The Legendary Three sighed in unison. The entire origination of Akatsuki was cold and humorless, but Obito, or Tobi as he was called here, was the only who seemed happy with himself, enough to make jokes and openly mock others in a humorous way. Obito continued with his speech.

"Yep! You guys are getting so good that you could easily defeat me if you were all working together! Nagato, you especially have been progressing, at a rate that's almost worthy of an Uchiha!"

Itachi smirked and Nagato frowned as Obito continued.

"I feel that one day, Nagato, you will take my place as third-in-command so I can finally relax and do all the fun stuff! Maybe, just maybe, you might get strong enough to take the place of second-in-command from Icy-Brains…shit!"

Obito was interrupted as Sub-Zero himself appeared in the doorway and gave Obito an evil glare with his glowing ice-cold eyes.

"Tobi, the Leader wishes to speak with you. _Immediately_."

Tobi gulped and after saying, "Alright then, see you guys later!" he disappeared from sight.

Sub-Zero continued to stare at the group, seemingly at Nagato. Nagato spoke up,

"Is there something you want?" being careful to keep his respect. Sub-Zero shook his head as he began to turn around. "No, not with you weaklings."

Itachi felt annoyed that this pompous ass felt that he was so much better than everyone else, so out of anger, he said,

"Yeah, actually, we three would like to challenge you to a sparring match."

Sub-Zero stopped walking as he turned around to face them once more. After several moments, he and said in a cold voice, "Very well, attack me when you feel your ready to learn why the Leader placed me as second-in-command."

Itachi and Konan jumped behind Nagato who held his hand up and hissed, "_Shinra Tensei!"_

Sub-Zero checked over himself. He only had several scratches on his body. He hadn't had a fight like this in a long time, probably since he challenged Tobi for the place of second-in-command. Tobi…that fool! Sub-Zero had know idea why Tobi pretended to be stupid and weaker than he actually his. Sub-Zero knew that Tobi was stronger than him. Tobi was the strongest person in the organization besides the Leader, but he acted weaker than he actually was because he was lazy. He hated how the Uchiha let himself be pushed around by the other members, including himself, when he was stronger than them all. But soon, once Sub-Zero found what he was looking for, he would be even stronger than Tobi. In only a matter of time…

Sub-Zero looked at the three who were kneeling before him in pain and exhaustion, especially towards Nagato. When Tobi had said that Nagato had potential, he wasn't lying. The gravitational-user was truly powerful and sharp, and he would soon come up to the same level as himself, Sub-Zero.

"You three have talent; I see why the Leader requested you to join our organization. I must leave now, for I have been ordered by the Leader to ask another member to join our organization. I fear though, for who I am asking is just as strong as me, and he and I have always been enemies…"

With that, Sub-Zero exploded into shards of ice which crystallized into nothingness, leaving the Legendary Three to think about how much they still needed to improve.

_Weeks Later, Unknown _

"_Assemble_"

The leader of the Akatsuki smirked to himself as he looked upon those gathered before him. He had hand-picked the most powerful and evil legends in the lands, getting them to work before him. In front of his elevated throne were seats elevated around him, all on the same height level. In each smaller throne sat a member of his organization. There were eighteen thrones in total, holding seventeen members, each with a symbol on the thrones. One member was missing, and the Leader didn't even have to look to know that it was Tobi's._ If only that damn boy wasn't so powerful, I would kill him in an instant! But I need him for my plans…_

Each symbol on the thrones was unique; a kanji which depicted each member's specialties:

_-Zero Gravity_

_-Crimson_

_-Crystal_

_-Ice_

_-Fire_

_-Wind_

_-Water_

_-Metal Earth_

_-Spiral (who was not present at the moment)_

_-Weapons_

_-Thief_

_-Bone_

_-Thunder_

_-Force_

_-Serpent_

_-Nature_

_-Explosion_

_-Salamander_

Every member, after training with his organization and his methods, had become more powerful than they could have ever hoped to be alone. Together they were…

He was interrupted from his own sinister thoughts as Tobi came barging in through the very large main entrance door behind them.

"Sorry! Sorry everybody! I'm late, I know, I know! Don't give me that look, Popsicle-boy!" Tobi said as he ran down to the meeting, creating a scene, and jumped up to his seat. "Alright, everybody, calm down, I here, okay."

The leader sighed to himself before he continued. "I have gathered all of his here today because we have acquired all of the necessary members. It is time that I share my plan with all of you. Soon, the world will be ours!"

_Months Later_

"Yatta!!" Naruto shouted jumping up his chair, gaining the attention of everyone in the class and nearly giving them all a heart attack from surprise. Today was the last day of the Academy before they would take two months off of vacation. Iruka, as custom, had given out the first year exam which reviewed everything that they had been learning that year. Naruto, of course, as well as Sasuke and Hinata, knew every answer and could answer with ease. Naruto had gone through extra quickly because he needed to keep up his persona as the class clown. How funny was it that the class clown got the highest grades out of everyone!

The test, of course, was a silent writing test, and Naruto had just scared the living daylights out of everyone by screaming. He jumped down from his back-row desk all the way to the front of Iruka's desk, slamming his paper down and making a scene and an argument between him and Iruka. Not that the teacher didn't like Naruto; Naruto had perfect grades _and _he managed to lighten up the class. Iruka needed a student like Naruto.

Naruto enjoyed being the class clown as well. It allowed him to drop his whole serious persona and made him have a better time. Surprisingly, everyone became friends with him because of his humor and friendliness. Even some of the villagers began to respect him because of his match between himself and Sasuke.

"Peace out, everybody!" Naruto shouted to the students who were still taking the test. "I had a good time with everybody this year! Shikamaru, you rock! Chouji, let's have some barbecue later on! Ino, you look pretty cute in that outfit!" he said, causing Shikamaru to groan, Chouji to say 'sure thing!', Ino to blush, and Hinata to steam in anger. Naruto continued,

"Sasuke, you're a brother to me, but you already know that. You're the coolest guy I know, too. Hinata-chan, you are the prettiest girl in here and you're really cute. You guys know where I'm gonna be, right? I'm out! Oh, and by the way Kiba, the answer to number fourteen is thirty-five feet!"

With that, Naruto disappeared to leave behind a very frustrated teacher, an unconscious Hinata, a smirking Sasuke, a grinning Kiba, and the rest of the students changing their answers to problem number fourteen.

_Training Grounds, Night_

Naruto and his friends had spent the day celebrating with their Academy friends with Kakashi and Anko. They had all had a great day, and now it was night and Naruto and Sasuke were just leaving the training grounds to walk Hinata home. The girl had been having a hard time staying conscious after she kept on hearing Naruto's compliment in her head. The three best friends were now talking about what they were going to do for their break, and whether they would train a lot or take a trip to another village, such as Kusa. Sasuke had liked the idea.

"Hey, if we can go to Kusa, I might be able to meet that kenjutsu master that gave you the scrolls, Naruto. If that happened, then both of us would…"

Sasuke as interrupted as Naruto held up his hand for silence, with a complete serious look on his face. Sasuke and Hinata immediately tensed and jumped behind Naruto. They knew that Naruto had an amazing sense of chakra, and that he could tell when someone was approaching them. This became useful for the times when Kakashi would surprise attack them to train them on their reflexes.

Naruto activated his bloodline and motioned for his friends to activate theirs. Everyone was surprised what they saw; three enemy ninjas with chakra reserves large enough to rival Kakashi's, which meant that they were Jonin.

The ninjas jumped into the clearing and Naruto, with his enhanced vision, could see that they were all from the cloud village. This was not good! If these Jonin ninja were approaching them in secret, it couldn't be for any good reasons!

The leader ninja in front of the other two spoke up. "The Raikage ordered us to kill the Uchiha and Namikaze kids, and kidnap the Hyuuga girl. It seems convenient that you are all hanging around together. This makes our job easier. Let's get them, now!"

Naruto eyes were wide with shock as the Jonin charged at his group. He and his two friends were all individually strong, and together, they had flawless teamwork, but would that be enough to take out three ninjas as strong as Kakashi?

"_Lightening Style: Thunder Slash!_"

The ninja in front swung his arm and sent a pulse of lightening at the group of kids, causing them to jump in the air and avoid the explosion which followed. Naruto became more and more worried. He and his team had planned out what to do if a single ninja attacked them suddenly, but not _three _ninja! _What are we going to do?!_

Naruto stood protectively in front of Hinata, who had taken a kunai to her leg, immobilizing her. Sasuke was trying to fight off the two other ninja, but it was clear that they were toying with him.

"Why don't you just step aside and let me kill you so I can take your friend here. You know that you can't beat me, so just give up! We're not gonna kill the girl. But the leader did say that we could…_play_ with her for a little bit if we wanted to." the ninja in front of Naruto yelled out laughing.

Naruto had never felt such rage and anger before. Blinded by anger, he formed a Rasengan in his right hand and charged at the Jonin in an attempt to kill him. The ninja smirked as Naruto charged at him. When Naruto was about half way there, he realized his mistake. He had left the immobilized Hinata alone…

The Cloud ninja in front of him jumped in the air and threw a large amount of kunai and shuriken at Hinata.

Naruto screamed in surprise as he himself jumped into the air in attempted to shield Hinata. He was low on chakra, and he couldn't use jutsu…

Several of the thrown projectiles painfully hit the airborne Naruto but…there were too many…and more than half of them continued on their path towards the chakra drained and immobile Hinata. Naruto watched in horror as the shuriken found their path and hit his friend.

"No!!!!" he screamed, falling from the air and running towards his friend, ignoring the pain of the kunai that were lodged in his body. When he reached Hinata he fell to her side, crying his eyes out. The world froze around him as he looked at the girl.

"Hinata-chan! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I tried to stop them, but there were too many! Hinata, say something!" he yelled as he grabbed the shoulders of the small and lifeless girl, next checking for a pulse.

The _murderer _behind him laughed as he yelled out,

"Whoops! Oh, well, no big deal. I heard that this puny girl had a sister. I guess we'll just have to kidnap her!"

Naruto ignored the man as anger filled his body like he had never felt before. Hinata was…dead. There was no doubt about that. There was no pulse, and those beautiful eyes that were once filled with innocence and purity and joy…were now lifeless and pale.

Sasuke, who had turned around to check on Naruto and Hinata, found that Naruto was crying clutching Hinata who was limp on the ground. That could only mean…

"…no," Naruto spoke in no more than a whisper, staring at what he thought was impossible. He turned around to look at his badly wounded friend, Sasuke, who was trying to kill their attackers full of rage. Naruto wished he could go and help his friend, but he couldn't move. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the lifeless body that was lying in front of him.

"Hinata-chan," he cried, tears shamelessly rolling down his face like a river. He grabbed her hand, almost feeling like it was the only way that he could drag her back to life.

He heard a scream of pain behind him and he turned to see Sasuke stabbed in the back with a kunai, on his knees.

It was…over.

Suddenly, a new energy took over him, and the spiral Rinnegan in his eyes began spinning rapidly and glowing in a white light. He looked at the back of his right hand where a golden triangle composed of three triangles with an upside down triangle in the middle had just appeared, glowing brightly. The Triforce. The legendary symbol of power and peace that the first person to use ninjutsu possessed; the Sage of Six Paths. Gold chakra began leaking out of his body, his power quickly growing. Suddenly, he snapped his head up into the sky as his entire eyes glowed brightly of a pure white, golden chakra bursting forth around him, swirling like a powerful vortex. The sheer velocity and power of the spinning chakra seemed to pulse wind in circular directions.

The three Jonin ninja that were attacking the wounded Sasuke were halted in fear as they turned to look at the boy who was now completely surrounded and cloaked with golden chakra. They looked into his eyes, his pure white eyes, and in his iris, where his pupil should have been, a golden triangle made up of three connecting triangles formed. The Triforce.

But their bad luck had just started.

Right in front of them, the boy who they were just about to kill exploded with a black chakra, pushing them backwards. As he stood up, black tattoos of flame enwrapped his body, seemingly stopping when they came halfway across his face. His eyes were black, with a red design of stars in them. The Kagai Mangekyou.

Sasuke disappeared only to reappear in front of two of the ninja, kicking them backwards and away from sight. He then disappeared from sight as well.

The remaining enemy Jonin looked at Naruto, his confidence gaining. All he had to do was take out this one last brat…

Naruto's glowing triangle irises seemed to bore into the man's very sole, effectively silencing his thoughts. Naruto's face showed no emotion what-so-ever, which frightened the man and quickly stole all of his confidence away. The gold chakra that was flaring around him suddenly stopped and all that was left was a bright golden glow around Naruto's body.

Naruto spoke up for the first time. "**Impurity**," he stated, in a voice laced with unimaginable power, lifting up the back of his right hand and showing the Triforce symbol that glowed brightly in the night. This was not the boy who had just been crying for the loss of his friend.

The Jonin ninja, in fear, sent a strong lightening jutsu at Naruto, with the full intent to kill the boy.

Naruto merely swung his hand and a tornado appeared before him, disrupting the lightening attack and spiraling towards the man, who barely avoided it.

Naruto walked slowly towards the cowering Jonin, powerful winds blowing around him. Finally, he held up his right hand forming the half-ram seal and shouted in a voice that didn't belong to Naruto,

"_**Tenrai Rinnegan**__!_"

His eyes glowed brightly and a small straight line of golden chakra traveled at insane speeds towards the surprised Jonin, and when it hit him, he was trapped between two large Triforce symbols which were slowly spinning. Naruto then appeared before the trapped man and pulled out his two swords, which were also glowing with a golden chakra, and began attacking the man. ________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke continued to leak black chakra from his body, staring at the two dead bodies before him, burning in a black fire. He was so…_unsatisfied_… with the battle that had just ended. He needed more…more! He had to take out the anger somehow!

The evil black chakra seemed to be intensifying, nearly loosing control. He felt himself lose less and less of his own control, almost as if the Mangekyou was taking over. The Sharingan seal on the back of his neck seemed to be pulsing with power, glowing in a bright crimson.

Just then, Naruto appeared fifteen feet in front of him in a flash of gold chakra. The two legendary doujutsus stared at each other, neither moving.

Naruto, who appeared to have been in deep thought, finally spoke.

"**Impurity.**"

He quickly reappeared behind Sasuke and with his two fingers he forced his chakra into Sasuke's seal on the back of his neck, causing him to scream in pain and fall to the ground.

Naruto looked down at his host's friends and said to himself. "**I pity the young Uchiha, for now his trial of the Kagai Mangekyou will begin. If he fails to control the ancient and evil power, then I will be forced to kill him**."

He walked over to Hinata who was still lying on the ground, dead and covered in her own blood. He continued to stare at her with emotionless eyes before he kneeled down and inspected her further, looking with his Triforce eyes at her forehead in shock. "**This girl! She possesses the same legendary Byakugan that Kyoshi did!**" He laughed to himself for a moment. "**It seems that Fate has allowed for the three legendary doujutsus users to be placed together as friends. This has not happened since Gyatso and his team. It will be quite interesting…to see how their power grows. I cannot allow this girl to die now, because she will be needed if Naruto is to stop the Leader of Akatsuki, like I have in the past. By only using my eyes, I was able to seal him for a period of time. Sealing is the power of those who posses the Rinnegan. But if Naruto and his legendary team were to fight that evil man, then they will surely be able to kill him and succeed where Gyatso, Hakoda and Kyoshi have failed, as well as myself.**"

He leaned down and touched his two fingers to Hinata's forehead, pushing his golden chakra into her body.

Hinata's body instantly reacted and all of the wounds on her body immediately healed and she regained consciousness for a moment, before passing out once more. This time, however, she was breathing and alive once more.

Naruto stood up once more and looked deep within his body.

"**Kyuubi, when I release my control on the boy and he passes into unconsciousness, you must explain to the boy what he needs to know. Tell him of his destiny and how he must defeat the Evil King with his two friends**."

The Kyuubi, who had been lying dormant in Naruto's belly for nearly nine years, responded.

"**VERY WELL, NAMIKAZE ****RINKU****.**"

Rinku looked at the world once more before he released his control and Naruto's eyes returned to normal, letting the unconscious boy fall to the ground.

_Kyuubi's Prison_

Naruto awoke to find himself lying down on a wet floor. When he stood up, he looked around and saw himself in a dimly lit place with extremely high ceilings. _Where…am I?_

He heard a grumbling noise to his right down the hallway and decided to go see where the source came from. He activated his Rinnegan, just in case.

When he turned the corner he found himself staring at the largest chakra circulatory system that he had ever seen in his life. He weakened his Rinnegan so he wouldn't see any chakra…to find that there was a giant fox with nine-tails behind a cage.

Naruto was no fool. He knew that he was staring at the legendary Kyuubi. He looked at the paper seal that was locking the giant fox in. With his Rinnegan he could see that the seal contained an incredible power that not even the fox could break. But if he was staring at the Kyuubi…then that must mean.

"You are the Kyuubi, and I am your jailor," Naruto shouted out to the fox who was staring at him with so much powerful intensity.

The fox chuckled. "**YES…YOU ARE QUITE THE CLEVER ONE TO HAVE REALIZED THAT SO QUICKLY. I AM GLAD THAT I AM NOT DEALING WITH A FOOL. SIT DOWN, FOR I HAVE MUCH TO TELL YOU."**

Naruto nodded and did as he was instructed for he figured that an ancient fox with unlimited knowledge could share some of his wisdom and understanding with him.

"I'm listening."

_End_

A/N: We are now over with the first year of the Academy! Let's go over some important things that happened in the story.

Akatsuki has eighteen members?!?! Yes they do! You were probably able to guess several members of the organization, but let's not spoil it for everybody. For those who know who the leader of Akatsuki is, don't spoil that either. We _do _know that:

Zero Gravity = Pain

Crimson = Itachi

Crystal = Konan

Ice = Sub-Zero

Spiral = Obito

As for the members of the organization, they will consist of my hand-picked choices from the anime and manga, and several bad guys from other series, like Sub-Zero is. I think that it is cooler this way and it will also help the readers be able to understand them more. Since the story will not be focused on the bad guys, I will not have time to go into details about each and every one of them yet, so it will be better if the readers already have an idea of who they are. You will find out more in later chapters.

The names of Gyatso, Hakoda, and Kyoshi are merely put there because I've never been one to make up good names that sound Japanese. Those characters are original and merely have those names.

Thank you for reading, and a great thank you for those readers who review, fav my story, or put it on their alert list. It feels great to know that people actually read what I write.

There is another link in my profile, like one of the Triforce for those who don't know what shape I am talking about.

Tenrai = divine, or heaven sent.

Kagai = evil

Here are the power levels for characters at the end of the chapter:

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500+**

Characters (after training at the end of the chapter):

Hinata: **100 **

Sasuke: **120**

Naruto: **150 **

Sasuke With Kagai Mangekyou: **370 **(he has yet to master it)

Naruto in his Triforce State: **500+**

Kakashi: **350**

Itachi: **???**

Konan: **???**

Nagato: **???**

Obito: **???**

Sub-Zero: **???**

Akatsuki Leader: **???**

Thank you everyone! Until next time,

-williams5505


	5. Revelations and New Friends

Thank you everyone for all of the input on this story! I am so happy that there are people out there who like my story! A special thanks goes to the people who review, alert or fav my story. Everything makes a difference to me! I love reading the reviews that people give me; every review is read. I hope that everyone will continue to enjoy my story and that more people will in the future!

anatamous: Sasuke is not a match for Naruto, not yet. Remember that power levels will not always guarantee the winner of the battle, and Naruto with his intellect may be stronger than numbers represent. As for understanding the elements; you are correct when you say that _wind _is weak against _fire_. But, if the _wind _jutsu is much stronger, it _will _overpower a fire jutsu. Just like if a _grand fireball _is used against a smaller_ water _jutsu, the fire will overcome. And for overpowering Naruto, I don't think so. He has a long way to go before he is even near Nagato's level, which is unknown. The power scales will change once the Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata become stronger. 500+ will no longer exist and I will change the number to what is the exact level is. Naruto has little to improve now and the best he can do for now is tens of points. In order to get past level 300 or 400, Naruto will have to have experience or mastery of other elements, which he does not have now. Naruto excels in what he does, and he has nearly mastered everything that has been presented to him so far. He will not learn much more from Konoha for now, and he will no longer be increasing so much.

P5yCH0: The beginning of last chapter was just me showing everyone a glimpse of what was to happen, so that tension would build up until they reached that part.

For confusion with the Triforce symbol: It's nothing more than a symbol, just like the Sharingan symbol on the back of Sasuke's neck. How and why he has the seal on his right hand will be described in this chapter.

Regarding crossing-over the Akatsuki members: I think that having enemies that we already know, such as Sub-Zero, is better than me creating many original characters. Every power that Sub-Zero has can be explained in the Naruto world, and I will explain it. Original characters that won't be explained every chapter would be easy to forget. But the enemies of Akatsuki won't be the main characters in the story, so you don't really have to worry that much about the cross-over.

Important Notice: I am going to be changing the types of Bijuu that are in the story. Don't be surprised if I replace the two-tailed cat demon or something, because I think that there are cooler animals than a cat. I understand that the demon choices may be symbolic or something, but I won't be including that in my story.

Kyuubi's Dialogue = **BOLD CAPS**

Let's Begin!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

The Second Born

Chapter 5: Revelations and New Friends

_Sasuke's Mindscape _

When Sasuke finally came too, he was unfortunate to find that he had an immense headache. He shook his head as memories of the fight last night came flooding back to him. _Hinata…_

He saw it, with is own Sharingan eyes. Hinata was dead. He could see that her vital signs had stopped as well as her heart. He remembered the look on Naruto's face when he was holding their friend in his hands, crying for her death.

That's when he snapped.

He could remember the feeling of anger swelling through him. At firsts he thought that it was a righteous anger upon seeing the death of his friend, but the hatred just kept on coming and soon he had lost control of his body. Just like Itachi had warned him of.

But Sasuke had failed his brother. He had let the anger consume him, thinking that it would take the pain away.

And that was all he could really remember. Everything else was like watching a movie instead of actually being there. He could _feel _so unsatisfied after killing the two Jonin and he had wanted more. That's when Naruto came into view. He had thought about attacking his friend out of anger, but Naruto had an unmatched power and he ended the fight rather quickly.

Sasuke shook his head once more as he stood up and looked at his surroundings. He was in the middle of what seemed like an endless lake of perfectly clear, perfectly still water. But, he seemed to be standing on top of the water without needing the use of chakra. The echoes of water being treaded on echoed loudly and eerily in this area, if Sasuke could call it an area. Light gray skies cloaked the abyss with a dreadful feeling of emptiness. He walked over to a rock standing out in the middle of the lake, finding no sign of a way out of the place. No door. Sasuke checked the rock for some way out of this place, or a switch or anything! His hope dies when his search is in vain. Worse, a horrible dread flows over him.

_I'm stuck here. In this… this… emptiness._

There was one tree in the center of this endless lake that flowed past the horizon. Desperate, Sasuke ran over to look at the only other object he could see besides water.

There was nothing special; it was just a tree._ Where am I…?_

Sasuke walked forward a little bit further, looking for a way out of this endless abyss. Had he died? Had Naruto killed him? Suddenly, Sasuke looked down at the clear water he was standing on.

Looking right back up at Sasuke was the clearest reflection that Sasuke could possibly imagine. Every detail in the reflection was perfect. Everything but…

His reflection was smirking at him.

As Sasuke puzzled over the reflection longer, he noticed a change in his image.

His reflection had the Kagai Mangekyou activated.

Suddenly, the reflection disappeared, and Sasuke looked around for a moment, puzzled at what happened.

"**Fear…Begin…to fear me…" **

**  
**Sasuke felt chills go down his spine upon hearing the mysterious and chilly voice behind him. He snapped around to see who had appeared behind him, only to see…himself.

Sasuke stared in horror as he looked upon the perfect image of himself, leaning against the tree that he was just looking at. His reflection! It had to be his reflection that had just disappeared! The dark Sasuke stepped out of the shadows of the tree and into the light where the real Sasuke could now see him.

The imposter was nothing more than a clear silhouette of shifting water which looked exactly like Sasuke, though the same color as the water in the lake. The eyes of the clear silhouette still contained the Kagai Mangekyou, which frightened Sasuke.

"W-Who…are you?" Sasuke finally asked, wary of standing close to this figure.

The dark Sasuke laughed in the same voice as Sasuke, yet it sounded so…_cold and evil…_that Sasuke could barely recognize that it was his voice.

"**I am the Kagai Mangekyou, in the form of yourself…in the form of your dark side; I am all of the evil that you are not. And. I. Will. Kill. You." **he claimed in such an evil voice that Sasuke began to doubt his own power. The Kagai Mangekyou continued.

"**If you defeat me, then you will return to your consciousness, but when I kill you, I will take over. And when I do, I will destroy everyone close to you, and then I will conquer the world. Not even the Evil King will be able to stop me when I gain full power! Hakoda was a fool for not letting me take control of him; for in the end he failed to kill the Evil King like I could have!"**

Sasuke eyes widened as he realized who the Kagai Mangekyou was talking about. Hakoda Uchiha, the first person to posses the Sharingan and the Kagai Mangekyou. But then, who is the Evil King?

Sasuke suddenly remembered what Itachi had warned him of. He pulled out his katana as he prepared to fight his dark self.

"I will not allow you to take control and kill my precious people."

The Kagai Mangekyou laughed as he pulled out the same katana that Sasuke had.

"**So you won't come quietly. Very well."**

_Hokage's Office, _

The Hokage sat behind his desk as he thought about all of the problems that had come to him. He had learned last night by Hiashi that there were three Cloud ninjas found dead and Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke were found unconscious near them.

An assassination attempt.

Sarutobi cursed to himself as he realized what this meant. By the village of Cloud trying to kidnap or assassinate three of his Academy students, they were on grounds to start a war.

He had to handle this situation very carefully. What was the Raikage thinking?!

He frowned as he took a puff on his pipe as he thought about the conditions the three children were in now. Young Hinata was currently resting in the Hyuuga compound, recovering from the traumatic situation. Naruto was resting unconscious in the hospital, seemingly fine. Sasuke was…

"Hokage-sama!!!!"

Sarutobi dropped his pipe in surprise as that same damn Chunin messenger barged into his office. He cursed to himself again.

"What is it?!" he yelled at the Chunin who was once more panting for breath.

"Sir, Sasuke…" he said through panting breaths. "He's dying!"

The Hokage's eyes rose up as he charged to the hospital.

_Hospital, Sasuke's Room_

When the Hokage entered the hospital room, he saw several doctors crowded around the young Uchiha, frantically checking to see what the problem is.

"We have no idea of what's going on!" one of them explained. "All of his vital signs seemed fine! He seems to be having and internal battle of some sort which is causing him to die. I don't think that there is anything we can do to help him!"

The Hokage nodded gravely as he watched Sasuke struggle in his bed, tossing about clearly in pain.

_What is that boy going through…?_

_Sasuke's Mindscape_

The Kagai Mangekyou laughed at the bleeding Sasuke who was lying in front of him. "**You were foolish to think that you could challenge me. When Hakoda battled with me he was much older with more experience. You are nothing but a **_**child**_**."**

Sasuke didn't lose hope at his shadows words. He _had _to overcome the Mangekyou! It wasn't impossible! He had noticed that all of the imposters moves where exactly the same as his, and slightly better. He had to adjust and find a new fighting style. But how?

Sasuke slowly and painfully stood up as he glared at his mocking opponent. He lifted up his katana which now felt as if it weighed twice as much as it was supposed to. He charged at the Mangekyou and raised is sword to plunge it in its heart…

…only to be slashed horizontally across the chest. Sasuke screamed and fell backwards as pain surged through his entire body. The pain was unimaginable, like he had never felt before. His vision became blurred and he dropped his katana to his side and he lay on his back.

The Kagai Mangekyou walked slowly forward to Sasuke, laughing while he came. "**So, in the end, after all that talk that you would defeat me and protect your friends, you were easily defeated without even landing a blow on me. Pathetic. I don't think anyone will miss you when I take over and kill your friends."**

**  
**The dark Sasuke raised its katana above its head as it smirked and was finally prepared to go to the outside world.

Sasuke stared up in horror at the blade that was about to claim his life. Suddenly, standing next to the clear silhouette appeared Naruto, Hinata and Kakashi, all looking at him with sorrow and disappointment in their faces. _No…this can't be how it ends! I have to protect my friends; I can't let this evil eye take over. No!!!_

The Kagai Mangekyou thrust the katana down, put it didn't reach its target. Sasuke, with his hand covered in chakra, had clutched the blade which was hovering an inch away from his chest. The dark Sasuke's eyes widened in fear as it tried to push the blade further and kill Sasuke, but Sasuke had an iron will.

"You. Will. Not. Touch. My. Friends!!!" he screamed out, with the killer look in his eyes. Blood dripped down from his hand as he still held his enemies blade. The Kagai Mangekyou realized that it was in danger and stopped pushing down on the sword, but it was too late.

Sasuke grabbed his katana lying next to him and quickly thrust it up into the clear chest of the Kagai Mangekyou. The evil impersonator backed of clutching his chest, staring at its wound. After a few moments, it shifted its head up and looked at Sasuke.

"**We will meet again, and when we do, don't expect to be underestimated.**"

With that, the Mangekyou dispersed like a water clone and it fell into the lake beneath it.

Sasuke looked down and sighed in relief when he saw that his reflection in the water returned to normal. He shuddered to himself as the endless abyss faded around him and he felt himself coming to. He wouldn't be looking at a mirror any time soon.

_Hospital, Sasuke's Room_

Sasuke awoke with a scream as he sat up in bed, breathing heavily. When he finally settled down, he looked at his surroundings. He was clearly in a hospital with nurses and the Hokage was in the room as well.

_That…was too close…I won't be looking forward to the next time I use the Mangekyou…_

He barely paid attention as the Hokage began to speak to him.

"Sasuke," he said, clearly relieved, "it is good to know that you are okay now. It seems that your vital signs are returning to normal. Just a moment ago, we thought that you wouldn't make it."

Sasuke nodded. That was probably when the Mangekyou slashed him across his chest. He checked his body, and he was relieved to find that there wasn't a slash mark across his chest. Suddenly, he felt a pain in his eyes and he clutched them as he screamed out in the hospital, causing the nurses to run to him again and the Hokage to begin to worry.

After about thirty seconds of screaming, Sasuke opened his eyes with his Sharingan activated. He shooed the nurses away and asked them to leave the room.

He turned to the Hokage and said,

"Hokage-sama, how many tomoes do I have in each of my eyes?"

The Hokage looked closely for a moment and said, "There are two, Sasuke."

The young Uchiha sighed a breath of release. It was all true. Even that his Sharingan would upgrade to level two. Sasuke could see the difference in his vision upon activating his eyes. He could…predict…every movement that the Hokage made in his chair, just by watching him with is knew eyes. The scroll had told him before that…

_The Kagai Mangekyou will also enhance the users normal Sharingan, making the users level two Sharingan just as powerful as a normal Uchiha's level three Sharingan._

So now he had the equivalent to a level three Sharingan. Sasuke allowed himself to smirk as he imagined the look on Naruto's face when the blondie found out that Sasuke could predict his every move. Even Hinata and her Jyuuken would be…

Sasuke cursed to himself as he was reminded that Hinata had…died last night. Tears began to swell in his eyes as the emotional pain hit him for the first time. The Hokage sensed what the boy was thinking about, so to comfort him he had said,

"Sasuke, it is a relief to find out that you are no longer in a critical condition. Out of your two friends, we feared for your life the most. Rest assured that Hinata is fine, and that Naruto should heal in a matter of days.

Sarutobi chuckled to himself as he felt a wave of déjà vu pass over him while Sasuke jumped out to window to the Hyuuga mansion.

________________________________________________________________________  
_Days Later, Ramen Stand, Morning _

Sasuke and Hinata were currently eating ramen together at Ichiraku's and enjoying the morning. Sasuke couldn't believe how relieved he was to see Hinata all right. He guessed that the saying 'you never know what you've got 'till it's gone' is completely true. He wondered how much more Naruto would react when he saw Hinata.

"Yo," Kakashi greeted as he walked up and sat next to the two. He had been there for Hinata to counsel her the day after she was attacked. Anko had visited as well from time to time, though just because she wanted to make sure her 'student' was okay. Kakashi smirked beneath his mask as he realized that Anko was bonding with the children as well.

Ichiraku leaned over the wooden counter as he greeted his new customer. "Kakashi! It's good to see you here! What will you be having?" he kindly asked the lazy Jonin. Ichiraku had always been a friendly store owner and chef, who got to know his customers on a personal basis. It was not hard to know Kakashi because he was there at the stand every other day with Naruto and his friends.

"Oh, I'll just have some water, please," Kakashi responded, pulling out his newest edition of Make-Out Paradise. Man, did he love Jiraiya for updating his series so quickly!

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Kakashi decided that it was time for the group to get back to their normal attitude, even though Naruto wasn't there. Sasuke had his normal attitude, which was surprisingly friendly and cool, but Hinata had been extremely depressed and miserable these past few days because Naruto had been in the hospital. Kakashi decided that he needed to make the girl blush a little more because Naruto wasn't there to do it. He nudged Sasuke in the side so the young boy would catch his game.

"So Hinata," Kakashi began, earning himself the attention of the quiet girl had been remaining silent. "When do you plan to ask Naruto out on a date? Right when he wakes up? Or are you going to kiss your hero for saving your life?"

Hinata choked on the noodles that she had been slurping on and it took several moments for the young girl to respond. While she was recovering and blushing, Sasuke asked Kakashi,

"Kakashi-sensei, why would Hinata want to ask Naruto on a date?"

Kakashi stopped his game for a moment as he stared at Sasuke with his one eye. Sasuke was utterly confused. Kakashi continued to stare at Sasuke, for even longer, waiting for a 'wink' or something.

Either the young Uchiha was the best actor ever, or he was just as dense as Naruto at romantics. Kakashi deeply sighed to himself when he concluded that Sasuke was serious. Technically, it wasn't his fault for being dense. He had no older brother or family to teach him about girls and stuff, like the 'father – son' talk or the 'birds and the bees' talk, and he couldn't get any information out of his friends because Naruto was Sasuke's only other good friend who was male, and getting information out of Naruto concerning romantics was like interrogating a tree.

"Because she has a crush on Naruto…" he explained, still at a loss for how stupid Sasuke could be.

Both Sasuke and Hinata gasped.

Hinata, being ever the innocent one, didn't think that anyone knew about her 'secret' crush on Naruto. _How did he figure it out?!?!_

Sasuke was stumped that Hinata liked Naruto. Suddenly, it all clicked for him.

"So _that's _why she blushes around Naruto?!?!" Sasuke discovered, looking at Hinata who was now extremely blushing. The world began to make sense to Sasuke as he solved one of its biggest mysteries.

"I can't wait to tell Naruto! He and I have been trying to figure out why you've been blushing around Naruto ever since we met you! He and thought that you were allergic to him or something!"

Hinata waved both of her hands in front of Sasuke's face.

"No!! You can't tell Naruto-kun!!" she desperately yelled, trying to persuade one of her best friends that telling Naruto wouldn't be a good thing.

Sasuke, again, was confused. "Well, if you like him, then why wouldn't you want to tell him? He'll never know that you like him!"

Kakashi chuckled as he reached over and patted Hinata's head, which had recently become in Hinata's top three pet peeves._ Why does he always pat my hair?!?!_

"Sasuke, Sasuke, oh naïve little Sasuke," Kakashi explained, sharing some of his sagely wisdom. "Girls your age won't tell anybody about their crushes, because they're all too shy about it, early on in their lives. But by the time they all reach the age of twelve, they'll be all over the cool guys. Just you wait! You and Naruto will be the envy of all the boys in your class, because all the girls like you!"

Sasuke looked confused again.

"But, I don't think any of the girls in our class _like _us!" he responded.

Kakashi sighed once more. Sasuke really needed to get with the program. "Just like you didn't think that Hinata is infatuated with Naruto?" he questioned, silencing the boy.

Kakashi took out a book from his ninja pouch. Make-Out Paradise, book one titled "Getting to Know Girls". He always kept it on him, just in case he needed to look something up for detail. This was Jiraiya's first novel of the series and it tells about a boy who goes through every type of girl problem there is. Jiraiya, debatably the smartest man in the world, uncovered all of the deepest secrets of girls after years of research and studying. He had instantly become famous when he sold the book around in Konoha, as 98% of the male adult populace of Konoha had bought the man's book.

"Here you go Sasuke, I think you're ready to read this," he said, handing over his precious book to the eight-year-old Sasuke, who treated it like it was worth millions. _This is one of the books that sensei is always reading!!_

"This book covers everything, from school-girl crushes, like Hinata has, and on to love and marriage, like Hinata wants."

Sasuke chuckled as he put the book somewhere in his crimson tunic, smirking to himself. Now he would uncover even more secrets! He turned to Hinata to share his excitement…

Only to find that she was on the ground, unconscious.

"Kakashi-sensei, why does Hinata pass out?"

Kakashi chuckled to himself. "Read the book and all of your questions will be answered, my boy."

_Later, Park, Morning_

Hinata woke up and looked around her. She was on a bench in the park, sitting next to Sasuke who seemed completely enwrapped in the book Kakashi gave him.

"Kakashi-sensei, what's 'making love'?" the Uchiha asked his wise sensei.

Hinata's madly blushed at the question. She, being a girl, and more mature than her two friends, knew some of these terms. Her mother had told her some of these types of things before she died, because Hinata had asked her mother how Hanabi was made. Interesting conversation. Well at least Hinata knew what the 'birds and the bees' were about, though some things were still pretty cloudy.

Kakashi smiled and responded, "The strongest and ultimate form of love that two people can have. Think about it like your Sharingan. Level one of the Sharingan would be like…Hinata dating Naruto. Level two might be like a serious relationship or something. Level three would be marriage. And then, the Mangekyou would be like Hinata making love to Naruto!"

Sasuke nodded as he continued reading. He heard a slight _thump _and he turned and saw that Hinata, once more, was unconscious on the ground.

_It's all making sense to me now…_

__________________________________________________________________________

_Later, Morning_

The three were now walking together to the hospital to go and visit Naruto and see whether or not he was awake yet. Hinata had once more recovered from passing out in the park, and was walking silently behind Sasuke and Kakashi.

When they reached the hospital, Kakashi walked up to the main desk and began to ask where Naruto's room was. Sasuke meanwhile was leaning against the wall and reading his newest book with complete and total interest. When doctors and visitors were walking by, they had to double-take at the young Uchiha who was beginning to look so much like the Copy-Nin. First the mask, now the book; people were beginning to wonder whether he and Naruto would start to where eye-patches and dye their hair silver!

Hinata walked up to Sasuke, who was still enwrapped in his book, and asked him,

"Ano…do you think that Naruto-kun will be o-okay when we see him?"

Sasuke continued to stare at his book, on chapter two already.

_When a girl comes and begins to talk to you about something completely boring, fear not! For this is a fool-proof method of how to let her think that you are listening, but you are actually not!_

Sasuke nodded as he thought about Ino. This book was pure gold!!

_If the tone in the woman's voice is pleading, say: "I think that everything will turn out alright."_

"I think that everything will turn out alright," Sasuke responded out loud, practicing the books advice to see if it would really work. He had no idea of what Hinata had just asked him, but her voice sounded somewhat desperate.

Hinata nodded her head, "I think so too! Naruto-kun will be alright!"

Sasuke smirked as he flipped the page.

_Naruto's Hospital Room_

When the three entered Naruto's room, Hinata ran over to his side to make sure that everything was okay with him. He seemed not to be wounded, which was good. Hinata was surprised to wake up with no wounds on her body several days ago. The medic-nins at the hospital must be talented…

Sasuke frowned behind his book as he saw Hinata checking Naruto for wounds. When he had woken up, he had checked to see if he himself was injured. He knew that he had been stabbed in the back with a kunai, but when he checked himself in a mirror (reluctant to see his reflection for obvious reasons) he was surprised to see that there wasn't even a scar to prove that he had been in a fight! Healing talents like that were unheard of, even from the talented medic-nins of Konoha. Sasuke concluded that it had something to do with Naruto's golden chakra flowing into him.

Hinata silently cried to herself as she looked at the unconscious form of Naruto. She blamed herself that both of her friends had to get hurt for her. The last thing that she remembered seeing that night was Naruto jumping up in the air and getting hit with a large number of shuriken and kunai that were meant for her. If she hadn't been so weak, then she would have never gotten hit in the leg with a kunai! She should've been there for her two friends when they needed her, but she wasn't.

Kakashi tried to lighten the mood in the room by once more jabbing at Hinata's nervousness.

"It seems as if Naruto is still unconscious," he said, making sure everyone heard him, "Perhaps, Hinata, you should pull down his mask and kiss Naruto, like a reverse Sleeping Beauty effect! I heard that those really work…"

Hinata immediately was brought out of her depressing thoughts as the thought of finally seeing Naruto's face…after two years!!... And kissing him…

She passed out for the third time that day as her head laid on the unconscious Naruto, with Kakashi smirking to himself. He turned to Sasuke, who was still absorbed in his book.

"Sasuke…I think I just planned out something really funny…"

Sasuke snapped his book shut and looked at the unconscious Hinata.

"I'm all ears."

_Naruto's Mindscape_

"**LONG BEFORE THE NINJA VILLAGES THAT YOU KNOW OF WERE CREATED, CLANS OF NINJAS WERE SCATTERED ACROSS THE PRESENT MAP. CLANS WITH POWERFUL BLOODLINES RULED OVER THE SMALLER CLANS WHO MERELY USED KENJUTSU STYLES TO FIGHT."**

"Where do bloodlines come from, if this period of time was the start of clans before ninja villages?" Naruto asked, curious as he was following along.

"_**DO NOT INTERUPT ME!!!!**_" he roared, causing Naruto to flinch back as the sheer power of the Kyuubi's voice shook his entire mindscape.

"**THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF BEINGS, RULED AND CREATED BY THE DIVINITIES. THERE ARE ANGELS, HUMANS, AND DEMONS.**"

Naruto frowned to himself as he thought about what the Kyuubi had said. Angels? The idea was preposterous! …But…then again he was staring at a demon. So if demons where real, as the Kyuubi seemed to be, then were angels real? Naruto decided to believe what the Kyuubi was saying.

"**OTHER FORMS OF LIVING INCLUDE TREES TO INTELLIGENT SUMMONING ANIMALS. THE DIVINITIES MADE IT THAT THE HUMANS WERE THE WEAKER FORMS OF LIFE OUT OF THE MAIN THREE. ANGELS AND DEMONS BATTLED WITH EQUAL POWER UNTIL THEY SEPERATED THEMSELVES INTO DIFFERENT REALMS OF LIVING. THE ANGELS FLED TO THE KINGDOMS IN THE SKY AND THE DEMONS RETREATED TO THE EMPIRES OF THE UNDERWORLD.**

"**THE DIVINITIES, SEEING THE UNEQUAL POWER BETWEEN THE THREE FORMS OF LIFE, BREATHED A SECOND BREATH OF LIFE INTO CERTAIN HUMANS GIVING THE SELECT FEW BLOODLINE LIMITS TO HELP THEM FIGHT OFF THE DEMONS THAT REMAINED ON THE PLANET. SOON, ALL OF THE WEAKER FORMS OF DEMONS FLED TO THE UNDERWORLD AND ONLY US TAILED-BEAST REMAINED. BECAUSE OF THE DEFIANCE TO THE DIVINITIES FROM THOSE WHO HAD NOT RETREATED TO THE UNDERWORLD, THE GODS EVENTUALLY GAVE ONE MEMBER OF A CLAN THE POWER TO OVERCOME ALL OF US. YOU WILL KNOW THAT MAN AS THE FIRST HOKAGE, WHO WAS GIVEN THE BLOODLINE LIMIT OF **_**WOOD **_**STYLE JUTSUS.**

"**BEFORE THIS HAPPENED, THERE WERE THREE BLOODLINE LIMITS THAT ROSE ABOVE ALL. THE LEGENDARY DOUJUTSUS IN THEIR PUREST FORMS: THE TENRAI RINNEGAN, THE KAGAI MANGEKYOU SHARINGAN, AND THE SHINSEI BYAKUGAN, ALL BALANCING EACH OTHER OUT IN POWER. **

"**HOWEVER, AN EVIL KING BEGAN TO RISE AND HE STOLE A NEW POWER. USING HIS NEW ABILITIES WHICH HE SOMEHOW ACHIEVED, HE SPREAD HIS HATRED ACROSS THE LAND AND HE SINGLE HANDEDLY STARTED THE FIRST GREAT SHINOBI WAR, CAUSING ALL OF THE CLANS TO FIGHT EACH OTHER IN THE NAME OF GOOD AND EVIL. **

"**GYATSO NAMIKAZE, THE MAN THAT WAS GIVEN THE RINNEGAN, QUICKLY BEFRIENDED THE UCHIHA AND HYUUGA IN HOPES THAT TOGETHER THEY COULD DEFEAT THE EVIL KING WHO HAD STOLEN AN EVEN STRONGER BLOODLINE LIMIT THAN THE THREE. I KNOW LITTLE OF THIS DARK LORD, BUT WHAT I DO KNOW IS THAT ALL OF US BIJUU COWARDED IN FEAR BEFORE THE AWESOME POWER THAT HE POSSESSED, SURPASSING EVEN OUR POWER.**

"**TOGETEHR, THE THREE DOUJUTSU USERS WERE ALMOST ABLE TO OVERCOME THE MIGHT OF THE EVIL KING, BUT IN THE END THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO KILL THE MAN. GYATSO, REALIZING THAT THEY HAD FAILED AND THAT SOON THE WORLD WOULD BE RULED IN EVIL, GAVE HIS LIFE AND USING THE LEGENDARY BLADE WHICH HE CREATED; HE SEALED THE EVIL KING INTO AN ENDLESS ABYSS WITH THE NEW POWER THAT THE DIVINITES HAD GIVEN HIM, THE POWER OF THE TRIFORCE. HOWEVER, HE KNEW THAT ONE DAY THE KING WOULD RETURN TO CLAIM HIS THRONE ONCE MORE.**

Naruto wondered how all of this connected to him, but he decided to remain silent and listen further to the history lessons which he never heard before.

"**GYATSO HAD ONE SON, AND THROUGH HIM SPREAD THE BLOODLINE LIMIT OF THE NAMIKAZE. HAKODA AND KYOSHI DID SIMILAR. **

"**THE TWO REMAINING LEGENDS WERE CURIOUS AS TO WHY GYATSO'S SON DIDN'T HAVE THE LEGENDARY TRIFORCE ON THE BACK OF HIS HAND, LIKE GYATSO DID. THEY WERE ALSO CURIOUS AS TO WHY THEIR OWN CHILDREN DIDN'T POSSESS THE SEALS OF POWER THAT WERE ON THEMSELVES: THE SHARIGAN SEAL ON THE BACK OF HAKODA'S NECK, AND THE ALL SEEING EYE SEAL ON KYOSHI'S FOREHEAD. **

"**MANY YEARS LATER, JUST BEFORE THE FORMING OF THE NINJA VILLAGES, THE EVIL KING RETURNED, JUST AS GYATSO HAD FORSEEN. THE VENGEFUL KING RETURNED EVEN STRONGER THAN BEFORE AND ALL HOPE WAS LOST AS HE STARTED THE SECOND SHINOBI WAR ALLYING HIMSELF WITH EVIL CLANS. THERE WAS NO HOPE FOR GOOD TO OVERCOME EVIL, UNTIL ANOTHER HERO APPEARED SEEMINGLY FROM NO WHERE FROM THE NAMIKAZE CLAN WITH THE POWER THAT GYATSO HAD. THE YOUNG MAN QUICKLY MASTERED ALL OF THE ELEMENTS AND WITH THE POWER OF THE GOD GIVEN TRIFORCE AS WELL AS HIS TENRAI RINNEGAN AND THE LEGENDARY SWORD THAT GYATSO HIMSELF HAD USED, HE SINGLE HANDEDLY FACED THE EVIL KING IN MORTAL COMBAT.**

"**BUT IT WAS TOO LATE, FOR THE EVIL KING'S POWER HAD GROWN TOO STRONG AND THE NAMIKAZE REALIZED THAT EVEN WITH HIS TENRAI RINNEGAN AND THE LEGENDARY SWORD, HE COULD NOT DEFEAT THE DARK LORD. HE HAD FAILED, JUST LIKE THE THREE LEGENDS BEFORE HIM AND IN THE END ALL HE COULD DO WAS SACRIFICE HIS LIFE AND SEAL THE EVIL KING USING THE MASTER OF ALL SWORDS WHICH GYATSO HAD USED BEFORE HIM, KNOWING THAT THE EVIL KING WOULD RETURN ONCE MORE, EVEN MORE POWERFUL THAN BEFORE.**

"**AND TRUE TO HIS WORD, THE EVIL KING HAS FINALLY RETURNED AND IS SLOWLY GAINING HIS POWER BACK.**"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he realized what this meant. He _knew _that this was trouble, because the Kyuubi himself had claimed to be scared of the Evil King. Who…who would stop him this time? The Kyuubi continued with his speech, not allowing Naruto to ask any questions.

"**THE SECOND NAMIKAZE TO POSSESS THE TENRAI RINNEGAN AS WELL AS THE TRIFORCE WAS NAMIKAZE RINKU. ONCE HE DIED, THE POWER OF THE TRIFORCE WENT WITH HIM. BUT ONCE AGAIN, JUST LIKE THE EVIL KING RETURNED, THE DIVINITIES HAVE CHOSEN A NEW PERSON TO WIELD THE POWER OF THE TRIFORCE AND THE TENRAI RINNEGAN. NARUTO, LOOK AT THE BACK OF YOUR RIGHT HAND.**"

Naruto did so and he was shocked to see that he could see the seal image of the Triforce colored in a dimmed gold on the back of his hand. The Triforce! But that meant…

"**YOU, NARUTO, HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY THE DIVINITES TO CARRY THE POWER OF THE TRIFORCE AND THE POWER OF THE TENRAI RINNEGAN. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO DEFEAT THE EVIL KING ONCE AND FOR ALL. **

"**BUT YOU ARE NOT ALONE. THE ONLY WAY TO DEFEAT THE EVIL KING IS WITH THE THREE LEGENDARY EYES. NAMIKAZE RINKU HAD DISCOVERED A WAY TO DESTROY THE DARK LORD WITH THE THREE LEGENDARY EYES, BUT HE WAS NOT ABLE TO BECAUSE HE WAS ALONE WHEN HE FOUGHT THE DARK LORD.**

"**YOU HAVE THE TENRAI RINNEGAN; SASUKE HAS THE KAGAI MANGEKYOU…**"

Naruto interrupted. "But what about the other eye, the…"

"**THE SHINSEI BYAKUGAN LIES DORMANT IN YOUR FRIEND HINATA.**"

Naruto was filled with grief as he realized that his friend…had…

He turned his head down with tears as he shouted,

"Hinata…she's dead! I saw her with my own eyes, dead before me! They killed her!"

The Kyuubi chuckled to himself, a dark and deep chuckle that would make the average villain piss themselves in fear.

"**I HAVE SAID ALL THAT I AM REQUIRED TO SAY. IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP, FOR I HAVE LOOKED OUTSIDE YOUR BODY AND I BELIEVE NOW WOULD BE QUITE THE INTERESTING TIME TO WAKE. IT IS YOUR DUTY TO MASTER ALL THE ELEMENTS, MASTER YOUR TENRAI RINNEGAN AND SAVE THE WORLD BEFORE THERE'S NO WORLD LEFT TO SAVE.**"

Naruto began to fade away from his mindscape as he was brought back to reality, screaming questions at the laughing Kyuubi as he came to.

_Naruto's Hospital Room_

Hinata woke up to find herself alone in the room lying on the unconscious Naruto. She looked around but she didn't see Sasuke or Kakashi anywhere in the room. They must have left to eat lunch and left her there so she could peacefully rest.

Her attention was quickly brought back the unconscious form of Naruto who was steadily breathing. She looked both ways once more to check and see if anyone was in the room. The window was open and it let in a nice soft breeze as Hinata remembered what Kakashi had told her.

"_Perhaps, Hinata, you should pull down his mask and kiss Naruto, like a reverse Sleeping Beauty effect! I heard that those really work…"_

Perhaps…Naruto-kun would wake up if she were to kiss him, just like in all of those bedtime stories that she used to read. Hinata nodded her head as she thought she might give it a try. She _is _an eight-year-old soon to become nine, so it's not out of her league to believe such tales. She began to blush as she inched her hand slowly towards Naruto mask, before she quickly pulled it back again.

_No! I can't do this! It would be violating Naruto-kun's privacy! But…Kakashi said I could…and I really want to see his face…and he might wake up and we can spend time together again…and now would be the only time that I could kiss him…ah!!! What do I do!_

Checking both ways once more, Hinata inched her hand slowly to Naruto's face as she prepared to pull his mask off.

_Nearby Rooftop_

Sasuke looked through his own expensive camera that he and Kakashi had just bought with a great view directly into Naruto's room through the open window. He could see the bed sideways, so he had the perfect view.

"Oh my God…she's actually going to do it…"

Kakashi smirked to himself as he patted Sasuke on the back. "This picture we are about to take is going to make you quite the famous photographer, Sasuke. Make sure you turn the flash off; they'll never know what hit them."

_Naruto's Hospital Room_

Hinata was now on the bed beside Naruto sitting on her knees. She shivered as she felt her hand touch the fabric of Naruto's white under-armor at the bridge of his nose. _I can't believe that I'm actually doing this…_

Blushing madly, she decided to go about the situation like a band-aid and she quickly pulled off his mask.

She nearly fell off of the bed, backwards as she gasped and looked at his face. He was…he was…

_Oh my God, Naruto-kun's an angel…_

Hinata quickly remembered why she fell in love with Naruto in the first place. She ran her hand across his face as she looked at his six whisker marks. She had forgotten that Naruto had them, but in a way…it made him look cute. Foxy, almost!

Blushing like she's never blushed before, Hinata willed down the urge to pass out as she realized that an opportunity like this would never come again. She slowly leaned her face down until she was about an inch away from Naruto.

She closed her eyes, held her breath, and leaned down the rest of the way until their lips connected.

_Heaven…I must be in heaven…how could I have possibly imagined that kissing Naruto would feel this good?!?!_

Hinata knew that she had never felt this good before in her life, and she doubted that she would ever feel this way again. If only Naruto-kun would feel this way about her; they would be able to be together no matter how young they were! If only he was awake to share her heavenly experience…

Hinata opened her eyes only to see Naruto's deep blue eyes staring back at her in surprise.

_N-N-N-N-NA-NA-NAR-NAR-NAR-NARUTO-KUN!!!!_

_Rooftops of Konoha_

"Did you save the picture?!?!" Kakashi asked his fellow partner in crime as they made a beeline to the nearest developing shop.

Sasuke smirked as he held up three copies of the same picture where Hinata was closing her eyes and kissing Naruto. While he was unconscious and closing his eyes as well, it seemed that they were both kissing each other. All Kakashi and Sasuke had to do was wait until Naruto woke up and then send the pictures everywhere so people would think that he was awake when it happened. Or maybe…maybe they could wait until the start of the Academy once more and then put them all over the classroom…yes…I'll have to wait for the perfect time…

"And now its time to copy this picture. Copy and copy and copy and copy until our wallets run dry," Kakashi said, uncharacteristically laughing like a madman.

_Weeks Later, Naruto's House_

Naruto woke up this morning with a lot on his mind. He had recently accepted that he and his friends _were _the ones who had to stop the evil that the Kyuubi said had once more come again…but that didn't make it any easier. He had decided that he wouldn't tell his two best friends or Kakashi until the end of the Academy or maybe not until after they become Chunin. He understood now why Kakashi had made them go to the Academy last year. Kakashi had made them go to the Academy because he knew that their childhoods were short and over, and he wanted them to enjoy their time in Konoha and make friends before they left. Kakashi had thought that strictly training them until they leave Konoha would mean that their adulthood would start early and they wouldn't have any time to relax.

He had also decided that he would tell his friends about the demon fox within him…later. He wondered how his friends would react or how that conversation would even go:

"_Yeah, that was a pretty funny joke. By the way, did you guys know that I have the nine-tailed fox sealed within me?"_

Or:

"_Hinata, your food is amazing as usual! You know what else? The demon lord Kyuubi is sealed within me! Yep! I'm not kidding!_

Ugh, that would be difficult. He hoped his friends would understand.

That's why Naruto wouldn't tell Hinata and Sasuke yet. He figured that he would tell Hinata of her power sometime soon, but not about all of their destinies. For how could he truly relax now that he knew that he would eventually face the Evil King and either save the world or let it fall to evil? Now that he knew that it was his destiny to save the world, just like Gyatso and Rinku, he couldn't enjoy his relaxing time nearly as much. No…he would allow his two friends to think that they would only search for the secret of their siblings for now.

Now, Naruto walked into the hallways sleepily as he headed towards the front door. He had sensed that Hinata had come through the main Namikaze entrance, so he decided to greet her. Thinking about Hinata, Naruto realized that he had been spending a _lot _more time with her in the past few weeks than he ever has before. It was almost like he didn't want to let her out of his sight, not that Hinata had any problems with Naruto's new attitude. Naruto thought that it was because he had felt how much it would hurt if he were to lose Hinata, which he was sure he did. Waking up that one morning in the hospital to see someone alive who thought dead…even though she was _kissing _him for some reason…was an amazing feeling, and Naruto had newfound appreciation for Hinata in his life. When he had first woken up, he had given her a hug, only to find her unconscious. It was such a relief to find her back again.

"G-Good morning, Naruto-kun!" Hinata kindly greeted surprised when Naruto opened the door for her. He ran out the door to her and gave her a friendly hug.

"Good morning, Hinata-chan!" he replied to the girl who was rapidly losing consciousness.

_Two Months Later_

The three kids had had their birthdays over the two month break, and now they were all nine-years-old and entering the second year of the Academy.

As Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata walked by, parents and fellow students from different years began mumbling about how 'those three took out _three _full-fledged _Jonin_!' Well, the rumor _was _true, but that didn't make anything better.

When they finally entered the room everyone fell silent and stared at the three, causing them to sigh as they walked to the back row. The whispering began, and everyone was now talking about how they killed three Jonin.

"Alright, everybody, quiet down!" Iruka said, getting the large group to fall silent rather quickly. Why don't we all share with the class the most exciting thing that happened over break. Chouji, why don't you share first?

The large boy, who curiously wasn't as fat as he was last year, 'did he lose some weight?' someone mumbled in the class, stood up in front of the class and shared,

"For the past two months I have been training really hard with my dad and I have mastered my first jutsu! Naruto, high-five!"

Chouji reached his right arm back, and when he threw it forward it stretched all the way to the back row where a smirking Naruto gave it a high-five. The class starting clapping and were amazed that Chouji was able to master one of his family clan jutsus.

"Good job, Chouji! Shikamaru, why don't you share with us something exciting that you've done this year?"

Shikamaru walked to the front of the classroom, with his hands in his pockets and when he had everyone's attention, he spoke up.

"I have also been training these past two months and I have mastered level two shadow control, out of the five levels that my clan possesses." Iruka was impressed. "Why don't you show the class then, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sighed as he explained. "Level one shadow control is being able to send your shadow across the ground and capture someone in the technique. Once they are captured, they will move the same way you move."

With that, he formed the rat-seal and sent his shadow to capture a pink-haired girl who was sitting in the front row.

The class laughed as Shikamaru danced around like a monkey, forcing Sakura to do the same. Naruto, from the back, shouted out,

"Shikamaru, what would happen if you were to jump out the window?!"

Shikamaru looked to his right were he indeed saw an open window, and he smirked at the idea. Iruka paled. _I always keep my windows closed!! The last time my window was open…pies flew in and hit me. Oh God, I hope whoever that won't do it again!!!_

Shikamaru, jogged at a fast pace, not a full out sprint, but rather close to a sprint, and vaulted out the window. Unfortunately, there was now window where Sakura jumped, so she ended up smacking into a wall, at a pretty fast pace.

The class broke into laughter again. When Shikamaru returned, the enraged Sasuke threw a dulled kunai at him which she had kept in her ninja pouch.

Shikamaru didn't flinch, and as the kunai was about to hit him…

His black shadow shot up from the floor in a straight line and the kunai bounced off of it like a rock.

Shikamaru smirked. "Level two shadow control: Being able to defend yourself with your shadow without using any hand-seals."

_Later_

The students returned to the classroom after lunch, and Sakura sat embarrassed in the front row. Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru and Kiba were all walking home with Naruto's group who had invited them all to come over to his house and have lunch. Ino asked to come, thinking that she would be able to flirt with the boys, and Naruto had shrugged and allowed her to come. Hinata made sure to stand extra close to Naruto so Ino wouldn't flirt with him.

Sakura had saw the group leaving and felt rejected that she hadn't been invited, so full of anger, she had ran up to Shikamaru to give him some payback for making her run into a wall in front of the class.

_Flashback_

"Alright guys, let's head out to my place then!" Naruto said, leading the group away. Ino happily had begun to talk to Sasuke about something or the other (the Uchiha was currently reading Kakashi's book about girls while professionally ignoring Ino) and Shino walked in the back of the group, happy to be invited.

Most people stay away from the people of the Aburame Clan, but Naruto had always been friendly to him and now he was inviting him to lunch. Shino felt…honored.

As they were about to walk out of the school grounds, (which Iruka had actually forbidden them from doing, but eventually allowed them to after realizing the Naruto would go anyway) Naruto whispered to Shikamaru.

"Hey Shikamaru, I think that pink-haired girl is following us so that she can get some revenge."

The lazy boy didn't even blink. "I might be worried, but then again, she is an extremely incompetent ninja. Even Ino is trying to learn jutsu, but I don't even think Sakura knows what a jutsu _is_."

True to Naruto's word, Sakura came running down the road with her fist raised high in an attempt to smash Shikamaru in the head…

Only to hit his shadow, just like the kunai did. Every time she through a punch, Shikamaru's shadow would come up and intercept her fist by forming a small shield of shadow. Aggravated, she tried punching him from different angels but the result was the same.

What pissed her off the most was that the group didn't even acknowledge that she was there! Eventually she gave up and began walking with the group.

"Fine! I forgive you Shikamaru!" she said, even though Shikamaru had not asked to be forgiven. "I guess I'll just walk with you guys to lunch then!"

Naruto stopped and turned around to Sakura, mad that she would just invite herself.

"Fine, you can come eat lunch with us if you can follow us. Come on guys."

With that, Naruto put chakra into his feet and he walked up the side of the building, with everyone following him. Everyone, after seeing Naruto's first battle with Sasuke, had asked their parents to train them more so that they could catch up. Even Ino had learned how to walk up walls using chakra.

But not Sakura. She looked up with anger and the retreating forms of the laughing group as they walked up the building. "Fine then," she shouted up to them, "I'll just go and eat my own lunch!"

With that she stormed back to the Academy.

_Academy_

"Can I have everyone's attention please?!" Iruka called out to the class that had just gotten back from lunch. Attention received. "I have two important announcements to make. The first one is that we have a new student attending the Academy with us today. Sai, please come in and introduce yourself to the class."

The class watched as a strange pale boy in ANBU gear (A/N: Outfit Change) minus the mask entered the room with a sword on his back. He seemed to be smiling but Naruto had the strangest idea that the boy wasn't happy.

"Hello, my name is Sai," he told the class, smiling at everybody. After several moments when he didn't continue, Iruka stepped in. "Uh…okay…you can pull up a chair and sit in the back row next to Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata."

Iruka had gotten a larger back row over the school break because he thought that it would be better to have more room for sitting in the class. Sai nodded and walked up to the 'legends' in the back. He pulled up a chair like instructed and sat next to Sasuke.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you. I presume that you are Sasuke Uchiha?" he asked, never dropping his smile. Sasuke didn't even look at him and replied by saying "Hn." He was currently reading chapter six of Make-Out Paradise. Why wouldn't he be reading the amazing book? After all, there is nothing Iruka can say that is more important than the sage Jiraiya's words of wisdom!

Naruto leaned back and his chair as he greeted Sai.

"What's up? I guess you'll be joining are little 'back row' group! You seem like a pretty cool guy, and the way you walked in here impassively sensing the chakra levels of the students was very professional. I take it that you're from ROOT, sent here to analyze the students in the class…and if that's the case, more specifically, us three."

Sasuke looked up from his book at Sai now and Hinata was well turned to look at him. Everyone else in the class was listening to Iruka talk about the changes that would be made this year.

Sai smiled on the outside but was swearing on the inside. _Kuso! My act was flawless! How could he see through it?! Danzo-sama was correct when he said that this boy is truly powerful. After Danzo-sama watched Naruto's fight with Sasuke, he personally trained me harder than ever so that I could enroll in the Academy to spy on Naruto. But…what do I do now?_

"Very observant, Naruto," Sai responded panicking on what he should do.

Naruto laughed and said once more, "But just cause you're sent to spy on me doesn't mean that we can't be friends! We should hang out and train, sometime! I heard that kids from ROOT were raised to be emotionless. I bet that if I can show the wonders of daily life that you wouldn't want to return to ROOT!"

Sai raised his eyebrows in shock as he pondered the question.

_Friends…_

Iruka cleared his throat and had the strangest feeling that no one had been listening to what he just said.

"On to the second announcement," he proclaimed earning the attention of others now. "The Hokage has been impressed at how well this class performed on our exams last year! They were better than any other class in history! I'm so proud of you all!

"Anyways, the Hokage was so impressed that he is going to allow or class to take a fieldtrip!"

The class groaned. They had all been on a 'field trip' before. It involved them spending time in the nearby forests learning how to survive without food or shelter for _three _days. Iruka had said that they would be taking that field trip again in the fourth year of the Academy; so many children had thought that they would be doing it again.

The only people who had enjoyed the experience were Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chouji and Shino. Naruto was a born leader and with his crew they all had a camp set up in no time. Naruto had chosen each person to join him saying that it would be the easiest way to survive for three days.

_Look! Tis a Flashback! First Year of the Academy, Forest of Konoha, Afternoon_

Naruto and his chosen teammates were standing in the middle of a rather large and beautiful clearing in the forests of Konoha with a nice stream running through it.

"This place is perfect!" he said, while thinking of a plan and how to set everything up.

"You know," Sasuke recommended, "we could just sneak back to Konoha and return here in three days. Iruka would never know!"

Naruto shook his head. "It doesn't matter if he doesn't know. The point of this fieldtrip is to test our own skills of survival. We'd only be cheating ourselves," Naruto said like a true leader. Applause and tears of joy came from his audience.

"Here's the plan," Naruto began, "Sasuke, use your sword and fire jutsus to start a fire in the center of the camp site. Having a fire is vital if we want to survive!"

Sasuke nodded and headed off into the forest to collect wood.

"Hinata-chan," Naruto continued, "you and Chouji go into the forests together and collect spices and berries and such. When you return, you two can cook the meals for all of us."

The two nodded and ran out of the clearing together. Naruto knew from being friends with Chouji that the boy was a good cook and had a lot of knowledge when it came to food and how to find it in the wild. His knowledge combined with Hinata's Byakugan made the team perfect for finding food.

Naruto turned to Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, go and find a deer which Hinata and Chouji will cook for us. I'll send a clone with you to help."

Without even forming a seal, a shadow clone 'poofed' into existence next to Naruto who had his Rinnegan activated. The clone ran with Shikamaru into the woods.

"Shino, with your allies, cut down some trees and create ten large, flat and wide boards of wood so we can form a house together."

Shino nodded and with another clone of Naruto he left the clearing.

Naruto smiled at his group's teamwork and went to the stream to acquire some fresh water for everyone. He had his Rinnegan activated, as well as his clones.

Recently, Naruto had discovered something phenomenal with his clones. He already knew that all of the clone's memories travel to him once they disperse, but he had found something new as well.

If Naruto had his Rinnegan activated as well as his shadow clones, he could see everything that they could see at the same time. He could with his normal vision as well. It was…amazing. If Naruto created a clone with the Rinnegan and he and the clone stood back-to-back, he could see behind him and in front of him at the same time in a way that couldn't be described. It was almost like the Byakugan: it's impossible to describe what 360 degree vision would be like, just like it is impossible to describe how Naruto could see through his clones. Not only that, but he could share thoughts through his clones as well. Now, Naruto's clones were stronger than ever and he could use them much more efficiently. Oh, how he loved the shadow clone jutsu!

Naruto smiled to himself once he gathered all of the necessary water needed for dinner, also creating a small well of water using a small D-rank earth jutsu that Nagato had once taught him.

Afterwards, he chose the tree that he and Shino would eventually put their house in, and he leapt up and sat on one of the branches. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, his golden Rinnegan appeared in his eyes. Pushing chakra into his eyes further, he reached out his…conscience…so to say, until he reached all of his shadow clones that he created. Naruto, as of now could only see through the eyes of two clones at the same time, but he knew that if worked on the skill, the number would slowly increase. For a moment, Naruto wondered if Nagato new about the ability to see through clones using the Rinnegan. _Hm…_

Naruto smiled when he reached his clones and he saw Shino with one and Shikamaru with the other. He couldn't hear what they were saying, put Naruto pushed even more of his golden Rinnegan chakra through the clones until he could hear the conversation.

_Elsewhere in the Forest_

The clone of Naruto who was standing with Shikamaru smirked as he felt the original Naruto's presence within himself.

"_Great! So the technique works!" _thought the clone of Naruto, trying to communicate with the original.

"_Yep"_ the original responded. _"It seems that we can send messages through our brains. Incredible!_

_Later_

The result of everyone's hard work put together was incredible. Shino and Naruto had built a house in the trees above the ground, Shikamaru and a clone of Naruto prepared the deer so that it was ready to be cooked, Chouji and Hinata cooked a delicious meal and everyone was happy.

_End of Flashback_

The rest of the class hadn't done so well as Naruto and his group in the forest, some even having to eat bugs, to Shino's annoyance.

Iruka could sense the disappointment in the class. "Hold on everybody, this fieldtrip won't be like the last one. For the first time in Konoha history, our class will be taking a field trip to another ally village where you will learn the differences in how our systems are set up."

The class broke into cheering as they thought about the possibilities. They could visit the Village of Grass or something!

"In one week, the Hokage has scheduled his annual meeting trip with the Kazekage to discuss certain terms. He usually goes with a group of ANBU, but not this year! In one week, we will be visiting the Suna, the Sand Village!"

The kids once more erupted into cheering. They may be going to a desert, but at least they wouldn't be in some boring classroom.

Naruto frowned as he realized the situation. _Look underneath the underneath, _Kakashi had always told him. What was the real reason that they were going to Suna?

Sasuke smirked as he thought about challenging some puny Sand ninja.

Hinata smiled as she imagined a field trip with Naruto-kun and Sasuke.

Sai kept his fake smile going and thought to himself: _Perhaps now would be a good time to make a 'funny' image of myself, so people will find me more social and I will fit in. That is what the book said, after all._

Sai had been reading a book about how to make friends so that it would be easy to infiltrate the Academy and spy on others.

He stood up, which was the old fashion way to gain peoples attention. Everyone turned to him, to see what he had to say.

"Iruka-sensei," Sai started, still smiling. "You said that we are going on this fieldtrip because of the exceptional students in our class and how well we have progressed. Wouldn't it only be fair if the 'exceptional' students were allowed to go, rather than all of the students, even the ones who are pathetic like the pink-haired girl?"

The class brought into laughter as Sai smiled to himself. _Perfect! Now I have the image of a class prankster!_

Sai had known that Sakura was weak, which is why he had chosen her for the example.

_Flashback_

"I guess I'll just walk with you guys to lunch then!"

Sai turned to look out the window as he was disrupted from painting his picture. Outside, he saw a bunch of kids his age making a commotion near the side of a building. The leader of the group seemed to be a blond-haired boy, while the person who seemed to be making the commotion was some pink-haired girl. _Pink hair? Who the hell has pink hair?!_

"Fine, you can come eat lunch with us if you can follow us. Come on guys."

Sai watched in amusement as the group climbed up the wall using chakra while the pink-haired girl was unable to.

_Pathetic…_

_End of Flashback_

Sakura, full of rage, ran up to the pale boy and prepared to punch his face in.

Sai, in self defense, took out one of his paint brushes and quickly dipped it in some ink.

Sasuke's and Naruto's eyes widened. They had heard that there was a Hijutsu (secret technique) which allows the user to draw out attacks, but they had never seen it before. _So this must be the power of ROOT._

When Sakura neared Sai, the smiling boy flicked his paintbrush forward and ink splattered all over Sakura's face, causing Naruto and Sasuke to sweat-drop. While the pink-haired girl screamed in horror, Sai explained to Naruto and Sasuke,

"In my study book, it said that the weak female ninja in the class care to much about their looks, which is a reason as to why they are so weak. So, this is her weak-spot."

The class laughed again, Naruto the hardest.

Iruka sighed. _Looks like we have another class clown…_

_End of Class_

_Ring!!!_

"Alright everybody, make sure you sign the field trip forms! Naruto, Sasuke and Sai, you three are exempt from this of course."

The majority of the class left as Iruka reminded them about the field trip. Naruto turned to Sai.

"Sai, you don't have any parents?"

Sai continued smile and shook his head.

"Nope. Most ninjas in ROOT are orphans."

Naruto nodded his head. "So, are you going to this field trip then? It sounds pretty interesting!"

Sai nodded. It would be a good time to completely measure Naruto's and Sasuke's power and then report to Danzo. "Yes, I will."

Hinata, who had been keeping quiet, still wasn't comfortable with Sai hanging around them to spy on Naruto.

"Sai," she asked, earning the boys attention, "Why are you spying on Naruto-kun? What would ROOT do with the information?"

Sai truthfully shook his head. "I am merely following orders. I do not know what Danzo-sama will wish to do with the information I give him."

Naruto asked further. "Really? That's pretty cool! So are you like gonna tell him what my favorite food is and stuff?"

Sai once more shook his head. _Why are these three so…open and accepting? I thought that once they found out about my mission, they would stay away from me! And why am I answering these questions? They're supposed to be a secret! It's like their friendly natures are luring me into a sense of protection and trust!_

Sai responded, "He only wants to know how strong you are."

Naruto laughed and answered, "Well all he had to do was ask!" Naruto didn't really care if this man knew of his powers and wanted to use him as a weapon in the future. Once he became a Chunin, he was leaving Konoha, so what did it matter?

"Hey Sai, can I have a sheet of paper?" Naruto asked. "Actually, give all three of us sheets of paper and the paintbrush and ink."

Sai nodded his head and did so. Sasuke and Hinata were curious as to what Naruto had planned. The blond boy turned to his two friends and said,

"Sasuke, Hinata-chan, I want you guys to write every jutsu and technique that you have mastered on your paper. This way, Sai's job is made easier and he might have a chance to actually become our friend!"

Sai stood there, shocked. _Who…who are these people?!_

_One Week Later, Empty Training Ground, Early Morning_

Sai hid behind the bushes, and carefully peered into the clearing before hiding completely once more. He turned to his comrade in the trees and motioned to Sasuke that the coast was clear.

Sasuke, who was hiding in the tree, jumped down next to Sai.

"There's no use hiding, the Byakugan will see us!" he warned, telling his new friend that hiding would be pointless.

"I know, but I've using my jutsu and sending my ink into the ground," Sai responded, showing Sasuke the scroll that he was holding which was pouring out ink.

"Why are you pouring all your ink out?!" Sasuke fiercely whispered to Sai. "You won't be able to use it for other jutsus!"

Sai shook his head. "This is a special scroll that creates ink itself using my chakra. All I have to do is feed it a little chakra and I have an infinite amount of ink."

Sasuke nodded, though he asked another question.

"The Byakugan will still see your attack coming from the ground, so they won't be surprised."

"Actually," Sai answered as he closed his scroll, "the Byakugan has one major weakness: it can't see underground."

Sasuke was shocked. How come he had never known that!

"I'm all done setting up my ink. I'll cover aerial attacks which will probably come from Hinata. You have to take on Naruto until he is distracted enough for me to attack him. Let's move out!"

Naruto turned to Hinata and said, "Sai will probably take to the sky using his flying ink bird like he did before. With your eyes, make sure that there are no traps set up around me and take him out using your _water _jutsus. Use your chakra wisely!"

Hinata nodded.

"If you can't get him, then quickly come and help me take out Sasuke. I'm sending clones around in the forest to give me a perfect view of the battle using my Rinnegan ability. Let's go!"

"_Fire Style: Dragon Flame Projectile!_"

The second Naruto jumped into the clearing, a large stream of powerful inferno came headed right at him. If he were to use _wind _style jutsus to defend himself, the attack would only end up increasing on his because the fire attack was so powerful.

Naruto jumped high into the air to avoid the flames…

Only to find Sai headed directly at him flying on a large falcon. However, just as he was about to clash with Naruto,

"_Water Release: Geyser!_"

A giant vortex of water shot up in front of Naruto and intercepted Sai on his ink falcon, pushing him away.

Naruto landed next to Hinata who was rising from a kneeling position where she had just pushed her palms into the ground. "Hinata-chan, do that jutsu again underneath me and aim it at Sai!"

Hinata nodded her head and flew through several hand-seals and slapped her palms on the ground again.

"_Water Release: Geyser!_"

Naruto was quickly lifted into the air on top of the water stream and headed towards the unbalanced Sai. Just before they hit, Naruto jumped off of the geyser and went through some hand-seals, and when the powerful stream of water collided with Sai, Naruto shouted out,

"_Wind Style: Wind Column Technique!_"

A horizontal column of wind burst forth from Naruto's two hands and headed towards Sai, but when it hit him, the ROOT ninja burst into ink.

When Naruto landed, he had little time to think as Sai appeared in front of him using a shunshin and yelled out,

"_Ink Flush Technique!_"

Naruto didn't have time to react as several black ink snakes appeared beneath him out of the ground and enwrapped him as they continued to slither around him completely restraining him. One of the snakes actually bit Naruto as Sai walked closer to his new friend.

"My serpent just injected a special ink venom which will knock you unconscious in about…three seconds. Powerful stuff."

Naruto looked at Sai and eye-smiled as he burst into a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke and Sai kneeled to the ground in defeat as Naruto gave Hinata a victory hug and swung her around. "I knew we could do it, Hinata-chan!"

The poor girl blushed at the contact with Naruto and Sasuke smirked, knowing why his friend was blushing. Sai had never been taught to restrain his observations and said out loud,

"Ah, I have heard about these types of girls before. They blush when they are in close contact with people they love!"

Sasuke smacked his head and Hinata passed out from embarrassment and Naruto smiled and explained.

"Of course! We all love each other like a family, Sai!"

Sai nodded thoughtfully as he took out his notebook to write that down while Sasuke pulled out his orange book and shook his head.

_Oh, Naruto, Naruto…naïve little Naruto, thinking that she likes you like a brother. I feel so intelligent now after reading half-way into this book. Fill me with your wisdom, Jiraiya-sama!_

_Later That Day, Morning_

The four friends made their way to the Academy after their little match and when they got there they could see everybody outside with Iruka checking for names. Hinata, being the only person in the group to have a parent, turned in her father's signature that said she was allowed to go on the field trip. Her father had been more than willing to let his daughter go into the sand village, telling her to 'uphold the honor of the Hyuuga Clan'.

"Okay, it seems that everyone is counted for…let's head to the front of the village!" Iruka called out to the tired group. It was six in the morning, and everyone was half asleep. Shikamaru actually was asleep and his friend Chouji was carrying him.

_Outside of Konoha_

The group was now walking through the out on the trail in front of Konoha. Iruka and the Hokage were leading the group with Iruka's students behind them, and there were several guardian Jonin following from behind.

Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke were walking in the back of the group along with Sai as well. The three were surprised how easy it was to befriend the clueless boy, and they all had fun trying to teach him how to be a friend. Sai had reported that he would send information to Danzo about them in a month, but until then they could hand out.

"So, what do you think the Sand Village will be like?" Naruto asked the group, curious himself. When he left to Kusa to learn kenjutsu from the master there, he was curious as to which villages he would visit next. Suna had been an option but Naruto had known little about it.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru replied, walking behind so he was strolling with the group. "My dad said that it full of sand and that the people there are…not as kind as those in Konoha towards outsiders."

Everyone nodded their heads at this important information.

Behind them, the three Jonins, or rather, Kakashi, Anko and Kurenai were walking together talking about Kakashi's students.

"I can't believe that those three students are together in the same year," Kurenai said, "The last time there were three doujutsus on the same team was when…"

"When Nagato and his team was their ages. I also plan to become their Jonin sensei. I know I will not be as great as a sensei as Minato was to the Legendary Three, but those kids have a potential that we haven't seen in Konoha yet," Kakashi proudly exclaimed.

Anko nodded. She knew it was true. "I think…I think that after seeing you train with the kids, Kakashi, I may want to take on my own students when I become a Jonin. You should too, Kurenai."

The red-eyed girl nodded. She _had _been giving it some thought. She wondered what being a sensei would be like. However, everyone was interrupted from their thoughts as Hinata fainted in front of them.

Kakashi sighed as Naruto and Sasuke tried to pick her up. _Yep, that's my team…_

_Suna, Night_

Sabaku no Gaara sat on top of his house, staring at the moon. The night was silent and the wind blew across the desert, ruffling his clothes. He clutched his teddy bear and cried to the skies as he remembered what happened to him earlier that day.

_Flashback_

"Why?! Why are you attacking me?!" Gaara screamed not even paying attention to the kunai that flew at him. They would never hit him…his shield of sand protected him from everything.

The assassin smiled menacingly at Gaara as he shouted out,

"Because you're a monster! A failed experiment! I would be praised as a hero if I were to kill you!!!"

Gaara had enough. Every day people called him a monster. Fine! Then if they called him a monster, he would start acting like one!!

He reached out his hand and felt the sand around him bend to his will. Faster than his attacker could predict, the sand shot forward and enwrapped him, hovering in the air.

"Monster! Why don't you just go in the desert and die?! Mon-"

The assassin was silenced as Gaara, with tears in his eyes, closed his fist and mercifully ended his life.

When Gaara lowered his hand, he stared in horror as the shock and sand fell to the ground.

He clutched his head as he screamed out in horror. This was the first time he had killed someone…now he was a monster…a failed experiment…

________________________________________________________________________  
_End of Flashback_

That had been the first time Gaara had killed somebody, and now he felt like a true monster. What would Yashamaru do to him once he found out? Would he like him anymore?

Gaara continued to sob into the night as the common feelings of grief and misery flooded over him.

_Days Later, Arrival at Suna_

The large group finally reached their destination and arrived in Suna. As many students were complaining about the heat and the uncomfortable walk in the desert, Iruka escorted all of the Academy students to a reserved hotel along with the help of Anko and Kurenai. However, when Naruto and his friends turned to follow the group, Kakashi pulled them aside.

"Not you guys! The Hokage has something special planned for the three of you!" Kakashi proclaimed, eye-smiling. He then turned to Sai, who had stayed with the group. He had been informed before by his three students that Sai had been sent to the Academy from ROOT due to orders from Danzo and he was supposed to spy on them. Naruto, however, had said that the emotionless boy had become a friend to the three, so Kakashi didn't act rashly. But Kakashi made sure that Sai didn't know where the Namikaze Clan entrance was, because it was important that Danzo didn't know either. The Namikaze's had incredibly kept their compound location hidden amongst a village swarming with ninjas, and even then Danzo had been unable to find out where all of the Namikaze ninjas lived.

"Um, Sai…I guess you could come with us, if the Hokage allows it."

"Where exactly are we going?" Sasuke asked, irritated at the sudden change of plans. The Hokage walked up to the three at that moment, and had beckoned them to follow him. He had been talking with several of the Suna nin guards at the front of the gate. There was a ninja following him who had tan hair.

"Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata," he began with them, explaining what he had planned, "while the other students enjoy their stay in Suna and I converse with the Kazekage, you three will on a special mission. Sai, I think that it would be appropriate if you were to join them as well, so listen up. There is a young boy, your ages, in this village named Gaara, who is…emotionally hurt due to all of the unfair treatment the villagers. Naruto, you and Sasuke should understand how that feels and how it would make you act if you had no friends."

The two boys nodded. Naruto, though recently some of the villagers (the ones who saw his fight) had been treating him better, had been mistreated by the population of Konoha for something that wasn't his fault. He had recently discovered that it was because the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him. Did that mean that this 'Gaara' kid had a demon sealed inside of him as well?

Sasuke understood what it meant to feel hated as well. There were many of the villagers who treated him like trash because his brother betrayed the village and murdered the Uchiha Clan.

"This is Yashamaru, Gaara's uncle. He will lead you to where the boy is now. Make sure that you four make friends with Gaara and show him how friendship can change his attitude!"

With that, the Hokage walked off with Kakashi and they were escorted to the Kazekage.

Sasuke was displeased with the mission. _They sent us to Suna just so that we can make friends with someone?!_

Hinata was worried. _I hope that we can make friends with Gaara so that he won't feel hurt anymore…_

Sai was impassive. _………I wonder if I'll have time to paint a sunset in Suna…_

Naruto smiled to himself and he was happy that he would be making a new friend. Growing up with Nagato, Naruto had never had many friends and he had loved becoming friends with Sasuke and Hinata. That was why he so easily befriended his classmates and Sai; he loved making more friends. He also wondered how different he would be if he never had any of his own precious people. _That pain…loneliness…we have to help Gaara…_

"Alright then," the man named Yashamaru said, "follow me and let's head out to where Gaara is. I think that this time of day he spends his time in the park."

The four kids followed Yashamaru as he led them away.

_Later, Park_

_Why? Why won't they let me play with them? I promised that I wouldn't hurt anyone! Why would I want to hurt anyone?!_

Gaara sat miserably to himself on his swing in the park as he watched children his age play soccer in front of him. He had asked to join, but they had screamed at him and said that the game 'wasn't for monsters'.

Suddenly, one of the kids kicked the ball really high and it landed on top of one of the buildings.

"Ah man!" the boy complained. "None of us know how to chakra-walk to get it!"

Gaara jumped out of his swing as he realized that he could now prove to everyone that he was not a monster. He pushed his chakra into the sand around him and held his hand to the rooftop, silently commanding the sand to move.

The sand obeyed, and under Gaara's control it flew to the top of the building and carried the ball back down to Gaara. The players looked on in horror as Gaara held the ball out to them.

"Here you go!" he said excitingly. Now they would see that he wasn't so bad after all!

Naruto and the grouped silently watched as Gaara got the ball down from the roof. Yashamaru had left when they arrived, saying that he had to report to the Kazekage that they were going to meet Gaara, and told them to go and talk to Gaara. He had pointed out to them that the red-haired boy on the swing was Gaara.

When Naruto saw that the ball had been kicked on the roof, he had been about to run up and get it, but he saw Gaara use sand to fly the ball down to them.

_Sand?! Sand isn't even an element; it's a sub element combining the two elements earth and wind! _

"Here you go!" the boy had said excitingly while holding out the soccer ball, almost eager to prove himself.

Naruto was horrified at what happened next.

All of the children ran away from him and called him a monster, screaming as they fled like mindless chicken.

Gaara was traumatized.

"Why?! Why are you running away from me?!" he screamed, clutching his head in pain. Suddenly, he reached out his hand in anger and sand shot out of the ground, grabbing a girl's leg. He swept his other hand up as well, and another sand bullet shot at the screaming girl, sure to hit her…

But the attack was disrupted as Naruto appeared in front of the girl with his hands spread out, having blocked the attack.

The girl looked up from the ground at him with wonder in her eyes.

"You…you saved me from the monster!"

Naruto turned coldly around to the girl.

"No. I saved the monster from having do deal with _scum _like you! Leave, before I change my mind and help him!"

The girl squealed and ran away like Naruto instructed. He then turned to Gaara who had somewhat regained his composure and spoke out,

"Why don't you just run away like everyone else and leave me alone!" he screamed, furious at the world. Naruto sadly shook his head and walked over to Gaara as Sasuke, Sai and Hinata came out as well. He held out his hand and greeted himself.

"Hey, I'm Naruto and you must be Gaara. I've heard that you've gone through some pretty difficult times and my friends and I here want to hang out with you for a while."

Gaara shook his head in denial. He couldn't trust anybody except for Yashamaru. How could he expect these strangers to be friends with him when his own siblings avoided him?!

"I don't believe you. You'll just try to kill me like all the others!" Gaara shouted out, causing them all to flinch. _Somebody tried to kill him?! _

Naruto shook his head as well and picked up the ball that was on the ground, tossing it around in his hand. "How about we play some dodge-ball or something?" he pushed on, certain that he would play with Gaara.

Gaara looked continued to stare at Naruto and his friends as he thought that they would try to kill him. Hinata walked up to him and introduced herself.

"H-Hello Gaara, my name is Hinata. We don't want to hurt you! We just want to get to know you!" she insisted. Sasuke and Sai followed her example and introduced themselves as well.

Suddenly, Yashamaru returned to the group and heard about what was happening. He placed a kind hand on Gaara's shoulder and reassured him that everything would be okay.

"Gaara, it's alright!" he nicely said smiling at the red-haired boy. "These four have come to play with you!"

Gaara looked up into Yashamaru's face to see if he was telling the truth. Slowly, he turned to Naruto and said,

"How…how do I play?"

_Later_

Yashamaru had left the five children together after he had seen that everything was going to be alright. As of now, the five were playing dodge-ball together in the park, with Sai being the ref.

"Take that!" Sasuke shouted as he threw a ball at Naruto, who was on the other side with Hinata. Naruto managed to avoid the blow and Hinata picked up the ball from where it bounced. She hurled it across the lot in an attempt to hit Gaara, but…

Gaara didn't even flinch as the ball came soaring towards him. Naruto was to shout out to dodge it, but the second before the ball hit Gaara, sand flew up from the ground and caught the ball inches from the boys face.

The ball then dropped into Gaara's hand as the red haired boy tossed it to Sasuke, who was too bewildered to even catch it.

Naruto ran across the lot to Gaara.

"How did you do that?!" he asked, puzzled at how Gaara had managed to block the attack without even using hand-seals.

Gaara merely shrugged because it was an everyday thing for him. "I am gifted with an automatic sand defensive system. …Nothing can hit me or hurt me, whether or not I want it to. It's completely automatic, and I have no control over it."

Sasuke stared at Gaara with disbelief and with his two fingers he tried to poke Gaara in the head…

Only for more sand to shoot up and intercept Sasuke's fingers. The Uchiha tried to poke him again in the side where there was no sand, but sand suddenly appeared in front of his fingers as if from nowhere.

Naruto laughed to himself. "Well, I guess that makes dodge-ball kinda pointless. How about we play tag?"

Gaara shook his head in confusion. "What is…tag?"

Hinata spoke up and explained to Gaara. "Ano…the point is for a chosen person to touch any other person in the game. If any one else is tagged, then they become the chosen person."

Gaara nodded his head and Naruto continued. "I guess since we can't touch your body, the rules will change. If your protective sand is touched, then you become 'it', which is the chosen person forced to chase others."

Sai walked up and decided that he would join as well. He couldn't remember the last time he played tag before!

"Sai," Sasuke said, "you're it!"

With that, Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke jumped away from Sai, leaving the artist alone with Gaara in the park.

"…Uh…you're supposed to run away, Gaara-san, otherwise I will tag you."

A light bulb went off in Gaara's head as he understood and jumped away as well.

_Later_

Yashamaru looked out to the streets of Suna the balcony of his house. He heard some commotion up ahead, and suddenly, he saw a blur appear of one of the roofs.

Naruto and Sasuke appeared together, laughing.

Suddenly, another blur appeared and Gaara ran after them. When they met up, Gaara tried to touch the laughing Uchiha as the dark-haired boy maneuvered himself around the roof.

When the Gaara came to Naruto, the red-haired boy sent tendrils of sand at the boy, making Naruto go through some extremely impressive acrobatics to avoid being hit. Eventually though, one shot of sand hit Naruto in the chest and caused him to fall off of the roof.

Laughing, Naruto held his hands up in defense. "Alright, alright!" he called out to Gaara who had jumped down. "You got me! Now I'm it! That was really fun Gaara, you're really good at this!"

Naruto laughed again, and this time Gaara…joined him.

The red-haired boy had found the experience to be extremely fun, and for the first time in his life, Gaara was laughing.

Yashamaru looked on in complete astonishment as he looked at Gaara…laughing. That was impossible! He had never seen the boy laugh before! Seeing Gaara laugh was like seeing Orochimaru giving out free hugs to all of his test subjects!!! Yashamaru jumped out of the balcony as he headed straight towards the Kazekage to tell him what happened.

_Kazekage's Office_

The two Kages that were in the office were now sitting and chatting lightly because their business had been finished. The Kazekage was talking about how he just signed an adoption form from the a daimyo.

"Which child did the daimyo end up choosing?" Sarutobi asked, not really interested however.

The Kazekage took a sip of his tea as he replied. "A young orphan girl by the name of Matsuri. About three weeks ago they left to-"

"Kazekage-sama!" Yashamaru yelled, running into the room. The Kazekage swore as he nearly spilled some of his tea.

"_What _is it, Yashamaru!" he hissed, angered from the sudden interruption.

Yashamaru was panting from exhaustion. "Kazekage-sama…its Gaara…he's laughing!"

Sarutobi held down a chuckle as he looked at the ridiculous face the Kazekage was making.

"What?!?!?!"

_Gaara's House_

The five children sat in Gaara's house as they talked with each other. Gaara was currently explaining how he could control sand.

"My chakra is…special as my father told me and it allows me to control sand automatically with little effort. All I have to do is…_will _the sand to move, and the sand will bend and move to my will!"

Gaara showed what he meant by holding his hand up in the air. Suddenly, with a squeal, Hinata was lifted into the air on a platform of sand, before being brought down again. Sasuke frowned in jealously.

"Your sand protects you from any attacks automatically, you can completely control sand, and you can use it from ninjutsu…You're so lucky!!" he said, showing how he felt. Naruto and Sai agreed.

Gaara appeared to be shocked. No one had every considered him to be lucky before! But then again, so many new things had been happening to him today. For the first time in his life, he had had fun! Not only that, but he had laughed as well! It felt so great to be with his…with his friends.

_Three Days Later_

Gaara stood at the gates of Suna with a sad look on his face. Today, he friends would be leaving him! He was so sad that he wouldn't be able to play with anybody anymore. These past three days had been the best days of his life! He had really enjoyed getting to know each one of his new friends. Naruto was funny, Sasuke was cool, Hinata was nice, and Sai was friendly to him. But now they had to leave!

Naruto and his friends walked up to Gaara to say goodbye.

"Gaara," Naruto said, very sad as well, "we are all going to miss you! You've become a great friends to all of us! Make sure you remember all of what we've told you and how to treat others! Ignore the way they treat you and strive to become a great ninja!"

Naruto went up and hugged his now crying friend, as well as Sasuke, Sai and Hinata. They all waved to Gaara as Iruka called them over and they walked off with their group.

Gaara continued to cry as he watched the figures of his friends fade into the desert. Yashamaru came up to Gaara and placed a hand around his shoulder to comfort him.

"Don't worry Gaara," he comforted, "I'm sure by the end of the day you'll feel a lot better!"

_Later That Night_

Gaara sat on top of his rooftop as usual when most others were asleep. Gaara suffered from insomnia and he was unable to fall asleep at night. He stared at the moon as he pondered upon his times with his friends. He smiled as he remembered what he and Naruto did the other day.

Gaara had led Naruto to the house of the girl who Naruto had saved the other day. Naruto had insisted that they apologize for their behavior, saying that it was the first way to get people to like him.

When they the door to the house opened and the girl appeared, she had screamed at them and said,

"It's the monster!"

Gaara shook his head and held out medicine for the girl in an attempt to apologize. He could see that the girl suffered from a broken leg.

"I'm sorry for what I did. I want you to have-"

"No!" the girl screamed again. "You're just a monster!" With that, she slapped the bag out of Gaara's hands and slammed the door…

Only for the door to be stopped by Naruto's hand.

"He came here to apologize to you…and this is how you treat him?!" he yelled furiously. He reached back his arm and punched the girl in the face full of anger that the girl should do such a thing.

Gaara continued to smile on his rooftop as he recalled the memory. Naruto was a true friend for sticking up for him. He wasn't sure that-

Gaara was interrupted from his thoughts as his sand shield shot up and five kunais embedded themselves in his sand. He turned around furiously as he looked to another assassin that tried to kill him.

"Why?! Why are people always trying to kill me?!?!"

Without waiting for a response, Gaara summoned his sand and at a lightening speed, he captured the man in his sand, holding him in the air. He clenched his hand and crushed the man in his sand coffin.

Gaara hadn't used that much force and the bloodied man fell to the ground when Gaara released control on his sand. The nine-year-old walked over to his assassin to look him in the face. He removed the mask over the killer, and gasped when he saw who it was.

"Y-Yashamaru!!"

Yashamaru uncharacteristically grinned and ripped off his shirt to reveal many explosive tags covering his body.

"Gaara, I never loved you. I have always wanted you to die. Please respect my wish, Gaara. Please…die…"

With that, Yashamaru activated the numerous tags on his body and exploded into the night.

Gaara stood still and cried as sand swarmed around him, calming down after protecting him from the blast. Yashamaru had said that he never loved him…Yashamaru had tried to kill him…Yashamaru…

_Three Years Later, Suna_

Twelve-year-old Gaara stood at the gate of Suna not even looking behind him. Tears fell down into the desert sand as Gaara clenched his teeth in pain. Suna had always treated him like trash, but today was the last straw. Without even looking behind to the village, to his childhood, he walked forward with one destination in mind.

_I no longer have any reason to stay in Suna. I will go to the only other place where people have treated me with kindness. I will return to my friends…I will leave to Konoha._

_End_

A/N: This is the end of the second year of the Academy. Starting next chapter, we will move on to the third year.

Why did Gaara leave Suna? Next chapter will take place after Gaara kills Yashamaru, so we will find out.

The setting for Sasuke's mindscape in the beginning of this chapter may be familiar to some: a mini-boss room from the water temple. I merely used it because it fits perfectly into what I want to portray Sasuke going into. Next chapter you are going to see how much Sasuke's fighting is enhanced with the leveled up Sharingan.

Important: Naruto has decided not to tell his friends of their fates or that he has the Kyuubi within him…for now.

Tenrai = divine, or heaven sent.

Kagai = evil

Shinsei = pure, or holy

Thank you for reading this chapter! I have decided to start writing omakes in my story, which means short stories at the end of the chapter. I plan to write many of them focused on Tobi in the Akatsuki so we can all know how things are going for the Legendary Three. But first, let's go over the power levels in the chapter. Nobody really increased that much this year, which is why I didn't show in-depth training scenes.

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500+**

Characters (after training at the end of the chapter):

Hinata: **140 **(Our favorite girl is catching up! w00t!)

Sasuke: **160**(Level two Sharingan! Find out more next chapter)

Naruto: **165**(wtf? I thought he had the Rinnegan?! Yes he does, but he has yet to learn of its powers.)

Gaara: **150 **(He's only nine-years-old and he's able to kill assassins that very well may be Jonin, so don't say I overpowered him.)

Sai: **100 **(Danzo has been training him harder once he found out how strong Naruto and Sasuke were)

Thanks for reading! Please review!! I find that when I sit at my computer and read the reviews, I feel so much more motivated to get a start on the next chapter! I love getting reviews!

Also, please check out the prologue of the new story that I want to start writing. The story is focused on Gaara, because I like the character and there aren't that many great stories of Gaara. I _will _not stop updating this story. It is my main priority, and as of now, no one can get mad at me for my update rate. Each one of my chapters is around _20,000 _words, which is about 50 pages in Word, and I update once a week!

Omake: The Life and Times of Tobi

_Unknown Location_

"Dismissed," the Leader announced, telling all of the gathered Akatsuki that it was time to leave.

"Yay!!" Tobi shouted, jumping out of his miniature throne. Man, these Akatsuki meetings were boring! World domination, kill all of the Jinchuuriki, establish new hideouts, _boring_! He wanted some more action!

As he walked out of the Akatsuki throne room, (alone, because everyone else had used teleporting jutsus), he adjusted the ring on his finger. The Leader had given out rings to everybody with a special seal place on it, courtesy of Nagato, which would allow them to communicate mentally with each other over long distances and store chakra as well. Each ring was black, and the flat red jewel in the middle was inscribed with the person's symbol. Tobi had the kanji 'spiral' written on his ring.

_Days Later, Private Quarters _

Sub-Zero sighed, aggravated that he had been paired up on a mission with…_Tobi_. He hated that boy! He acted like everything was a joke and like nothing mattered! But this mission was important and the Leader had assigned his two strongest members to complete it. He suddenly heard a banging on his door.

"Popsicle-senpai! Tobi is ready to roll!"

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he already felt a headache coming his way.

________________________________________________________________________  
_Three Days Later, Trail, Afternoon_

"Come on! Please!!!! I forgot what we're supposed to be doing! If you were to tell me what our mission is, we could finish it so much sooner!"

Sub-Zero sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day as he repeated,

"Where are going to kill a rogue ninja in the mist village named Kisame, turn in the body for money, and you are leading the way because you said you knew the quickest way there!"

Tobi stopped walking as a light bulb went off in his head. "Mist?! Oh! The Land of Water!! Here I was leading us to a dango restaurant! My bad!"

"You've been leading us to a _dango _restaurant for the past_ THREE DAYS_?!?!"

Tobi didn't pay attention as he excitingly pointed to the end of the trail.

"Ah, senpai!! There it is!! The dango shop! The one that I had told you earlier about! Yay!! I love dango!! Ah yeah!"

He ran forward to the shop and began ordering food for them. Sub-Zero sighed as he walked up and sat down next to Tobi.

While the orders were being made, Tobi suddenly looked panicked and whispered to Sub-Zero,

"Senpai!! I forgot to bring my wallet!! How are we going to pay?!?!"

Sub-Zero slapped his head. "We are a in a _criminal _organization! We are about to go _murder _someone!! How can you possibly be worried about stealing?!"

Tobi didn't seem to hear the question as he was reading more of the menu.

"Cool! Check out the desserts this place has! Hmm, did you say something?"

Sub-Zero sighed once more. Damn this kid!

"Your orders are ready!" the waitress said.

She placed a large plate with about ten dango sticks in front of the eager Tobi, and in front of Sub-Zero…

She placed a glass cup full of ice-cubes.

Tobi explained. "I figured since your all about _ice _and stuff, you would appreciate some ice-cubes or something. Ikadakimasu!!!"

Sub-Zero closed his eyes as he restrained himself from not killing Tobi. What pained him most, however, was that Tobi was stronger than him and he _couldn't _kill Tobi! He hadn't eaten in the entire day because Tobi was leading them!

"Tobi, if you're not going to order me anything, then-"

"DESSERT TIME!!!"

Tobi smacked down his empty plate on the table, leaving Sub-Zero speechless. _H-H-How did he eat all that so fast?!?!_

The waiter came over and Tobi ordered for them while Sub-Zero was busy trying to find out what the hell just happened.

When the waiter returned, she placed a large piece of cake in front of Tobi, and she handed Sub-Zero a popsicle.

"Ikadakimasu!"

Sub-Zero watched closely now as Tobi turned around with the entire plate of cake in his hand, lifting his mask but hiding his face.

Seconds later, he turned around and the cake was gone. _H-H-How is he doing that?!?!_

"Man that cake was good! Oh, and I ate your popsicle because it didn't look like you were going to!"

Sub-Zero looked at his hand and surely enough, his popsicle was gone. _Impossible…_

Tobi looked left and right before whispering across the table,

"Senpai! I'll create a big distraction, and then we can get out of here!"

Sub-Zero sighed. "Sure, Tobi. Or we could just walk out right now and if they follow us we'll kill-"

Tobi then stood up on his table and screamed,

"Thief!!! This man is trying to leave without paying!" pointing down to Sub-Zero.

Everybody in the store turned to look at Sub-Zero. The man in the Akatsuki robes turned to look at his friend.

"Are you _crazy?! _How are…"

Tobi wasn't there anymore. He had just…disappeared.

Now, all of the men in the bar stood up and were walking over to Sub-Zero to teach him a lesson.

Sub-Zero sighed as he realized that he would be killing a lot more people than he expected today.

As the total carnage went on in front of the restaurant, nobody noticed that everyone's food had…disappeared!

"Hehehe! Tobi is a genius!" he said to himself as he prepared to stuff another dango stick in his mouth.

Suddenly, an ice projectile hit his food and it completely froze before he could eat it. A pissed off Sub-Zero seemed to be the one who threw it.

"Ah, Senpai! Don't be a spoiled sport! Senpai? What are you doing?! Wait, wait! Don't use that move! If you do, all of the dango…"

_Outside_

A weary traveler was walking down the trail, surprised when he saw a dango shop. He was really hungry, and he decided that he would be having dango for lunch.

Suddenly, giant spikes of…_ice_ pierced through the entire shop, coming out of the ceilings and the walls.

The traveler paled and ran the opposite direction.

_End of Omake_


	6. The Desert Storm

Please read the following:

Characters

Hinata: **140 **(Hinata still has her _water style _and_ Jyuuken _techniques. With little experience in battle though, she is unable to be much stronger at the moment. However, she is increasing at a steady pace and continues to advance.)

Sasuke: **160 **(he now has his level two Sharingan)

Naruto: **165** (Even with his Rinnegan, Sasuke is almost as strong as him. The reason is, unlike the Sharingan, Naruto has learn how to use the Rinnegan by himself instead of him automatically having all of its powers)

Gaara: **150 **(He's only nine-years-old and he's able to kill assassins that very well may be Jonin.)

Sai: **100 **(Danzo has been training him harder once he found out how strong Naruto and Sasuke were)

Regarding the Rasenshuriken: Naruto, having mastered _wind _style at a young age, _is_ able to create the _wind_ technique. However, he has not completely perfected it because it takes a lot of concentration and energy to use it, and Naruto would only be able to use it once. The technique is his strongest attack, but I doubt that he will ever need to use it in his early ages. Why? It is a big and flashy move and it is just as lethal as a kunai if we think like ninja. Sure, a Rasenshuriken will kill somebody, but so will a kunai that is thrown in the head, or throat. Remember when Naruto first showed mastery of the Rasengan in the anime? He was holding and immobile Kabuto with one hand, and in the other, he charged the Rasengan. In the end, his attack didn't even kill Kabuto. Now, if Naruto had enough time to charge a Rasengan, wouldn't he have enough time to take out a kunai and stab Kabuto in the neck or something? I'm sure Kabuto wouldn't have lived through that. No, Naruto in my story will choose his attacks wisely. (Another interesting thought: Kabuto is said to be as strong as Kakashi, who is a powerful Jonin. Yet in that episode where Naruto first used a full Rasengan all Kabuto could do was stare in horror as Naruto charged the Rasengan. Are you telling me that a Jonin ninja can't escape the grasp of a Genin?! All he had to do was yank his arm away using chakra, substitution, kick Naruto in the head, or stab Naruto with a kunai or something. Why would he just stand there and wait?)

Zzz: I am hoping to fix that my characters were way too strong way too early. Your suggestion was a good one and I will try to save my story while I can. I also believe that Naruto does have amazing potential to use chakra control. How else would he be able to master the Rasengan in a week, which is strictly chakra control? How else would he be able to master the Rasenshuriken when even a Jonin, Kakashi couldn't? How could he control Sage chakra perfectly when even Jiraiya couldn't? Naruto has potential to be excellent at chakra control, and I am merely making him achieve that potential earlier on. Also, remember in the first chapter when I said that I will be changing some major and minor points in the story? Well, this is one of them. If anything else, Naruto in the anime and manga did not have the Rinnegan like the Naruto in my story does, nor did he have my Namikaze bloodline. Hinata will indeed become better at chakra control later on. So, in my story he does have excellent chakra control, making him better at genjutsu. How can he learn an S-ranked genjutsu at age six? First of all, he hasn't even mastered it yet. Second, how could he learn the Rasengan in a week? Naruto can overcome the odds and he fights against impossibility. Learning a genjutsu is not out of his range when he has the Namikaze bloodline. Naruto does have tunnel vision when using shushin without the Rinnegan, sorry if I was unable to make that clear earlier on. As for melting his muscles, I have never heard that was a side-effect for using shunshin, so that is why I didn't include it. I'm not even sure that it is true, because I have read articles on the shunshin prior to writing. Hinata is very much improving and closing the gap. Before she wasn't, but after Naruto began training her in kenjutsu and Anko began helping her in taijutsu, she began to get much stronger. Hinata is _not _placed in the story so she can get beaten up. She will bring so much to the team as she continues to grow. The moment she grows in taijutsu to the point where she is on Naruto's and Sasuke's level, how will they compete against an improved Jyuuken? As you will read in this chapter, Naruto will not always be the strongest. Naruto won alone in the last fight against the three Jonin because his body was temporarily taken over by Namikaze Rinku, a legend of the past. Hinata had not activated her Shinsei Byakugan which is why she seemed so behind. As for my fight scenes, instead of giving up on them like you suggest, I think that I will merely try harder instead. We haven't even had a _real _fight yet! It is also kind of hard to update fifty pages on Word every week and keep everything perfect. My resolve: I will have to spend more time editing my story and improving its parts. Sasuke and Hinata are catching up, fear not.

anotamous: Tobi is about the only one in Akatsuki who has a funny sense in humor. As for the weaker element jutsus, my bad, I guess. Next battle scenes I'll make sure to keep that in mind. Also, Naruto's opponents won't always be Academy students and they will eventually be Akatsuki, who are all over the power level of 500. Naruto will have to become stronger than Nagato was when he left the village if he is to defeat the Akatsuki members, not even including the Leader. There will be little time for toying around when that time comes. Statistics do matter, and hopefully you will find out soon. Hopefully I will still be able to make this fanfic more interesting.

Anybody catch in the Omake that Sub-Zero and Obito were on a mission to kill Kisame? That means that the person in Akatsuki with the symbol of _water_ can't be him!

Long A/N, I'm sorry.

Let's Begin!

I disclaim owning Naruto.

Chapter 6: The Desert Storm

_Unknown Location, Outside, Evening_

Obito sat on the balcony outside of his room, staring at the mountain range before him. It was truly a beautiful sight, with the fading sun slowly declining upon the horizon of scenery. Obito loved the view from the Akatsuki hideout and he was appreciative that the Leader had chosen such an amazing place for them to stay.

He took off his orange spiral mask and began to fumble it around with his hands, now appreciating the scenery with both of his eyes. Well, they weren't both of _his _eyes. Obito only had one eye that was his; his right eye. The other…The other he had stolen. This is why he was always wearing a mask with one eye-hole. While it kept his identity a secret, Obito only wanted to fight with the eye that was his. Once his presence was known throughout Konoha, he would have little need for the mask and eventually dispose of it. But until then, he would wear it on a regular basis.

He lifted his hand up and felt his implanted left eye with his fingers. The eye he had stolen had been from none other than-

"I see you still haven't gotten over having a new eye, Obito," a female voice sounded behind him

Obito didn't respond and waited while the figure came to him and sat down beside him. The person was wearing the usual Akatsuki robes, and the ring that was on her finger read the kanji of _medic_.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get used to it soon," she kindly said to him. "You're going to have to, because you're going on a mission to a ninja village eventually and your presence will be known."

Obito nodded in understanding. The medic_-_nin of Akatsuki wasn't a full member of the organization; she didn't participate in any fights but instead she healed any wounded members that returned to the organization. Also, if the fight that any members would go to was serious, she would accompany them to issue first-aid if necessary. Sometimes, she also gave personal advice to certain members as well.

"What are we going to do when we return to Konoha, Rin?" Obito asked curiously to his crush. She smiled and responded,

"We'll just have to give a warm welcome to Kakashi!"

_Konoha, Training Grounds_

Naruto and Sasuke were standing in the training grounds. It was early morning in Konoha and Sasuke had insisted that they spar together in the training grounds before eating breakfast together and going to the Academy. The sun's first rays of light were just breaking the horizon and illuminating the field, filling them with energy. Naruto and Sasuke were in their respective Lin Kuei ninja outfits. Hinata was sitting against a nearby tree hugging her knees and watching the match. Sai was standing nearby as well with a canvas in front of him taking the opportunity to paint a sunrise.

"Sasuke, why do you want to spar so badly?" Naruto asked, annoyed. "We just fought together a week ago before we left Suna. You lost then, so what makes you think that things are going to be different?"

Sasuke smirked as he closed his eyes. "Before when we fought I made sure not to activate my Sharingan. Now, I will fight you with it activated."

When he opened his eyes, Naruto gasped in shock. With the enhanced vision of his golden Rinnegan which was activated, he could see that Sasuke's crimson eyes had two tomes in each one. That could only be from…

Naruto mentally smacked himself in the head. Sasuke had told him that he had overcome the Kagai Mangekyou while he was unconscious, but Naruto had completely forgotten that Sasuke's Sharingan would upgrade. And if he remembered correctly, now Sasuke would have the equivalent to a level three Sharingan.

Naruto smiled and disappeared from sight as he used a shunshin heading straight for Sasuke.

Sasuke smiled as well. Even though Naruto was moving at insane speeds that the normal eye wouldn't be able to catch, Sasuke could see every movement slowly and perfectly with his new eyes. Even more, as Naruto neared him, he could predict the attack that Naruto was about to make.

Sure enough, when Naruto reached Sasuke and slid down to perform a sweep kick, Sasuke jumped high in the air without even being worried. Naruto did this on purpose as he prepared to execute his next attack. Being in the air while facing a _wind _user such as Naruto was not the best idea. Naruto went through several hand-signs to prepare a _wind _jutsu and-

"_Fire Release: Phoenix Immortal Fire!_"

Naruto stood there shocked as Sasuke spat down balls of fire at Naruto. _How could he complete a jutsu that fast?! I didn't even see one hand-sign!! What insane speed!!_

Naruto quickly jumped to the right as the fireballs destroyed the ground where he once was. When he landed, his Rinnegan eyes widened and he had just enough time to turn around and put up his sword in defense as Sasuke appeared behind him and swung his katana.

As the two pushed their swords together, Naruto spoke up.

"I see that this level of Sharingan allows you to move much faster and perform jutsus much faster as well."

Sasuke smirked and jumped back. "You will soon see the power of the Uchiha!"

_Later, Forest_

Sai swore to himself as another explosion went of in the clearing behind him. He had retreated to the forest to paint in quiet. He was doing a very delicate picture of the sunset, but it became harder to paint as explosions continued to go off.

_Battle_

Naruto formed the familiar hand seals and shouted,

"_Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_"

A giant cloud of smoke appeared surrounding the clearing as about fifty Naruto clones revealed themselves. Behind the real Naruto, four clones ran into the woods in hopes of surrounding the perimeter. Naruto may not be able see 360 degrees himself, but if he spread out his shadow clones, he could see the entire battle with their eyes as well.

"Clones, attack!"

Sasuke, who was in the middle of all the clones, smirked more as he formed his copy-fist stance and prepared to disperse the clones. One by one, the clones attacked him, and one by one, they all were avoided and dispersed as Sasuke countered all of their attacks. Naruto cursed to himself as he realized that attacking him with taijutsu wouldn't work. He was just too fast! He could also predict all of his movements! Using ninjutsu wouldn't work both because Sasuke's element was stronger than his own and Sasuke could also predict Naruto's jutsus and perform his own faster. Genjutsu wouldn't work because all Naruto could do was change the environment, but in the end, he would still have to resort to ninjutsu and taijutsu. How could he face an Uchiha?! They were able to copy taijutsu and ninjutsu, and they could also break through genjutsu!

Naruto was going to lose the battle.

He smiled beneath his white mask as Sasuke dispersed the last clone and ran towards him. _Congratulations Sasuke. You're gonna finally beat me today._

_Later_

Sasuke stood in front of Naruto, panting. Naruto had gone down with a fight, and now Sasuke was exhausted. Naruto was currently kneeling over in fatigue, though he was still smiling. He had no idea that Sasuke could have gotten so strong that fast.

Sasuke smirked as he walked over to Naruto, ready to give the final blow. This was it! He would finally prove that he had closed the gap between himself and his friend!

"You've lost Naruto. No longer are you the strongest among the three of us."

Naruto continued to smile as he panted. He looked up at Sasuke and replied,

"I need not fear losing by myself, or being the strongest out of the three of us, for we are one team, and I will always have one of you guys to back me up!"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized what Naruto meant. He snapped around only in time to receive:

"_Eight Trigrams: Empty Palm!_"

Hinata thrust her palm forward and blasted the unaware Sasuke out of the fighting area. Dust rose up from the earth as Sasuke was painfully stopped by a tree with a large _thud_!

Hinata smiled as she regained her normal posture. The _Empty Palm _was her pride and joy and by far her favorite technique. She was a fairly strong taijutsu user and the empty palm was always a good way to attack the opponent.

Naruto laughed as he stood up and walked over to Hinata. He slung his arm around her shoulder and gave her a large eye-smile.

"I knew I could count on you, Hina-chan!"

Hinata blushed and shrunk from the contact with Naruto was he continued to lean on her.

_N-Naruto-kun! Naruto-kun's arm is around me!_

When Sasuke emerged from the bushes and rubble, he stumbled on the field with extreme disappointment. He pointed an accusing finger at Hinata as he scolded her.

"Geez, Hinata! I was just about to beat Naruto, _thee _Naruto Namikaze! How could you take away my glory?!?! My honor?!?"

He walked close to the two as he checked his chakra reserves. He still had enough left for a fight, and Naruto was exhausted as well.

"Naruto, I see that you are using your teammate to help you! But it seems as if you have forgotten that we have _another _teammate!!!"

Sasuke looked around as silence enveloped the clearing and there was no response. He cleared his throat and tried once more,

"I said that we have another teammate! One that will help me beat you two!!!"

Silence.

_Elsewhere in the Forest_

Sai sighed happily as he continued his sunrise painting. Man, did he love art! Much better than sparring with his friends! _I wondered what Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke are doing right now…_

_Later, Academy_

Iruka leaned back behind his desk as he watched the students come in. Class would start in about ten minutes. _There's Shikamaru and Chouji…I see that Shino is already in the back…Sakura is in the front as usual…_

Suddenly, the doors flew open again and Naruto and Hinata walked in, laughing and blushing respectively. They were both licking on ice-cream cones and they walked to the back row together. Iruka chuckled to himself. _Those two have been really close together recently. Ever since that incident at the end of their first year here, they spend nearly all their time together! I wonder how long it takes before he realizes that she is in love with-_

_Bam! _The doors flew open again and this time Sasuke and sigh walked in, both reading books. Sasuke seemed rather beat up and strangled and had a visible scowl underneath his mask and behind his Make-Out Paradise book. Sai had a black eye and was energetically reading and annotating a book labeled: _Friendship and Teamwork: Lesson One_

Iruka shook his head this time as the two walked up to the back row. _I wonder what happened to them…_

_Days Later, Training Grounds, Morning_

"1000!!!"

Lee pushed off of his hands and flew into the air as he finished his push-ups. Gai ran over to him when he landed and congratulated his prize student.

"Yosh!!" he began, patting Lee on the back. "You truly are overflowing with the Flames of Youth! You are the greatest student I could ever ask for, Lee!!"

Lee cried as he listened to his sensei's words. Last year, he was nothing, but ever since Gai sensei had been training him, he had been becoming much stronger. Gai made sure to make Lee study his academics and taijutsu very hard because Lee was unable to perform ninjutsu or genjutsu. Lee thought of Gai sensei like an angel from God to help him through his troubled times. The student and sensei gave each other a bro hug and shouted,

"Gai-sensei!!!"

"Lee!!"

"G-Gai-sensei!!"

"Lee!!!!"

After breaking up the tear hug, Lee pointed to the sky.

"Sensei, look!! The bird seems to be different from any other kind we have seen!!"

_Sky_

Sai looked below on his ink eagle at the duo training on the ground. If Sai heard correctly, the student had just finished one thousand push-ups!!! He didn't even seem to be much older than Sai!!

Sai's eagle descended to the training grounds as Sai wished to meet this group.

He hopped off the great bird when he landed and he walked up to the duo who were strangely wearing…green spandex.

"Yosh! You must be full of the Flames of Youth if you were able to spot us training this early in the morning!" Gai shouted out for no apparent reason as Sai was in normal speaking range.

Sai was curious as he took out a notebook.

"What are…Flames of Youth?" he inquired.

Lee smiled and gave Sai a thumbs up.

"The Flames of Youth are what make us train so hard and become so strong!"

Sai's eyebrows raised on his forehead as he began taking notes on the lectures of Flames of Youth. _This is amazing! So all I have to do is train with these guys and acquire the Flames of Youth and then I will become amazing at taijutsu! _

Sai needed to learn more taijutsu as he spent most of his time training in the ways of art ninjutsu. He smiled as he looked up at Gai.

"Perhaps…I can train with you guys and acquire this…youthful passion…"

Gai sensei nodded and gave another big smile.

_Weeks Later_

"Yosh! Let's begin running laps around KONOHA!" Gai screamed, emphasizing Konoha for no apparent reason.

Lee was just as excited. "Yosh! And if we can't run around the village in record time, then I will do 200 one-armed push-ups!" he screamed, pumping his fist in the air.

Both of them looked at Sai. Suddenly, a light bulb went of in Sai's head and he responded,

"U-Uh, and if I can't be Lee, then I will walk up the village wall using my hands!"

"GREAT! Let's go!!!!"

_Weeks Later_

"Yosh! Let's begin DOING PUSH-UPS!!!!" Gai screamed, emphasizing 'doing push-ups' for no apparent reason.

Sai eagerly jumped in front of Lee. He didn't even have a notebook in his hand.

"Right!!If I can't do 400 push-ups I'll hit the dummy 800 times! If I can't hit the dummy 800 times, I'll do 2000 jump ropes!"

Lee stepped up as well. "Yosh! If I can't keep up with Sai then I will do everything twice!!!"

Gai sensei began to cry at the beautiful sight of his youthful students vowing to train and pulled them into a hug.

"Oh, students! The lotus of the Leaf Village blooms thrice now that we are together! I am so proud of both of you for improving so much!"

Sai and Lee began to cry as well. In the past weeks, Gai had used his powers and turned the most emotionless Sai into a passionate beast, and Sai enjoyed every second of it. He loved expressing his feelings, and this was the place to be!  
________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Morning_

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata sat at Ichiraku's ramen stand together and were eating breakfast before they had to go to the Academy.

Suddenly, Kakashi walked in the shop with Anko beside him.

"Yo," he greeted, pulling out his orange book and sitting to the right of Sasuke. Sasuke was reading his orange book as well, already on book two: _How to Get Your Groove On_. Ever since he began reading these…_amazing_ books, he had become so much smarter! He could already see how foolish Naruto was when it came to romantics. He himself decided to let Naruto figure out his own romantic problems. Naruto, by the way, was seated in the middle of Sasuke and Hinata.

Anko sat on the left side of Hinata, patting her head. Kakashi had told her that Hinata really like being patted on the head and said something really philosophical about why. Hinata smiled on the outside but fumed in anger as she greeted her sensei. _Why does everyone pat me on my head?!?!_

"So, where's Sai?" Kakashi asked after ordering a glass of water.

Naruto shook his head. "We have no idea. The past few weeks he hasn't been with us in out morning training and sparring sessions, and we have no idea why! He does show up to our training with you, Kakashi-sensei, at my house after the Academy ends, but we don't know where he goes in the morning!"

Kakashi nodded in understanding. "Have you guys…noticed any…differences in Sai's behavior? Every time we train as a team, there are warning bells going off in my head and a strange sense of nostalgia passes over me."

Naruto and Hinata nodded. Sasuke didn't because he wasn't even listening to the conversation. Both Naruto and Hinata noticed that Sai had been…less emotionless recently and they didn't know why it felt so familiar.

Suddenly, none other than Sai walked in wearing his usual ANBU training gear.

"Hey guys, how's everybody doing on this youthful morning?" he greeted, sitting next to Kakashi.

Everybody, including Sasuke, stared at him as they finally realized where the sense of nostalgia came from.

Kakashi shook his head in horror. "Ah, HEEELLLL no! Sai, don't tell me you've been spending your mornings with…with…_him!_" Kakashi asked while uncharacteristically hissing like a snake.

Sai nodded and responded, "Yes! I have been training with Gai-sensei in the ways of taijutsu and youthfulness! I have found my true personality this way!" he finished, smiling with bright teeth and giving a thumbs up to everybody.

Naruto smiled and congratulated his friend.

"That's awesome, Sai! Now we have the Power of Youth on our side!"

Sasuke turned back to his book, disgusted like Kakashi.

"I hope you won't be giving any of us those…hugs!"

Hinata congratulated Sai following Naruto's example.

"Ano…I think that it is a good thing that you are finally showing some emotion, Sai-kun!"

Sai grinned and responded,

"Don't worry though! Kakashi-sensei is still my original sensei! Anko-sensei, you are a great teacher too! But Gai-sensei is a side teacher who has graciously been teaching me! Not only that, but he is so cool! He practically GLOWS with cool!"

Naruto nodded. Gai-sensei did seem pretty cool the last time they met him, which was another morning they had ran into each other. _Hmm, perhaps I should try to learn how to be…youthful as well…_

_Weeks Later, Naruto's Courtyard, Afternoon_

Kakashi stepped back as he finished teaching his students his daily training sessions where he would show them all new techniques.

"Alright then, let's begin the sparring matches with taijutsu! Only taijutsu allowed! No kenjutsu or anything! Also, if anyone is thrown out of the visible fighting area, they are disqualified!"

Everybody nodded. Anko was sitting to the side next to a tree, smirking. She had been training Hinata in snake-style taijutsu for a more than a year now, and her student was amazing! Not only was she good at snake-style, but she integrated it with her _water Jyuuken _style as well! Hinata would kick ass and win this sparring match, fo' sho!

Sasuke smirked as he activated his level two Sharingan. With his copying ability, he would dominate these sparring matches, ahhhh yeahhhh.

Naruto frowned as he realized that he would probably end up with a lot of closed chakra points and a black eye. Oh, no…

Sai smiled with a youthful passion as he realized that it was the perfect time to show off all of the results of his training with Gai-sensei.

"First match," Kakashi announced, "will be Sasuke and Sai!"

The two boys stepped into the middle of the courtyard where there was a large area of grass and prepared to spar. Everybody else backed off and prepared to watch.

Suddenly, a phantom image of Gai appeared in front of Sai.

"Sai, my youthful student," Gai warned, "when fighting an Uchiha, you must fight with will power or you will never win! He won't be able to copy all of your hard work! But remember, if you do not believe in yourself, hard work is useless!"

Sai cried openly to himself as he nodded his head.

"Go show them your hard work, Sai! Let the power of youth explode!!" he finished, smiling and fading out of existence.

"Begin!" Kakashi yelled.

Sai formed his taijutsu stance and put his right hand behind his back in a fist and the back his other hand facing Sasuke. "Behold the power of youth!!"

With that, Sai charged at Sasuke at such a high speed that they all thought that he was using a shushin.

Sasuke, with his Sharingan, was able to predict the kick coming and side-stepped to avoided being hit.

However, in the middle of his roundhouse kick, Sai disappeared in a burst of speed and reappeared behind Sasuke kicking him in the air.

Sasuke swore to himself as he sailed upwards. _When did he get so good at taijutsu?! How is he so fast?!?_

Sai continued to pummel Sasuke while the Uchiha was still in the air and eventually sent Sasuke head first to the ground.

Sai smiled as he neatly landed and reformed his fighting stance. He knew that Sasuke was better at taijutsu than he was, but the Uchiha had underestimated him and it cost him the fight. In a short matter of time, Sai had pummeled Sasuke pretty hard with a lot of force behind his blows, and Sasuke was down and out.

Everybody stared in wonder as Sasuke barely managed to get up and he called off the fight.

Anko still smiled, confident that Hinata would still beat Sai. _He may be fast, but using normal taijutsu against Jyuuken is foolish!_

Kakashi cursed to himself as he realized that Sai had dramatically improved under his rival's tutelage.

Naruto frowned to himself as he realized that he was probably the worst at taijutsu. While he was extremely fast, speed and taijutsu are two different categories. _I am definitely going to this Gai-sensei guy to learn taijutsu!_

Hinata peacefully sighed as she thought about holding Naruto's hand. _Oh, Naruto-kun. I love you so much! If only I could tell you…_

"Alright, Naruto, you and Hinata are up next!" Kakashi stated, once more backing off the stage as he helped Sasuke walk away.

Naruto fell into his _wind _style stance as he prepared to fight Hinata. _Maybe if I avoid her long enough, she'll tire out and then I will strike! Stamina has always been a strong point of mine, thanks to Kyuubi!_

Hinata frowned as she thought about attacking Naruto. _…I have to prove to him that I am not weak! I have to win! It's time to use that new move that Father has been helping me with. I have mastered it in practice, but now I will master it in combat! _

"Begin!"

Naruto abandoned his previous plan and charged at Hinata with the intention to knock her out of surprise. After sparring with her a countless amount of times, she had gotten use to his fighting strategy so she would expect him to avoid her, right?

Several meters before he reached her, he slid on the ground and executed a slide tackle.

Hinata, with her Byakugan activated, avoided the attack and did a flip with her legs straight out over Naruto, landing facing him.

Naruto was quick to respond as used a shunshin to burst behind Hinata. He pulled back his fist to punch Hinata, but…

Hinata saw the attack coming with her 360 degree vision and moved her head to the side just in time to avoid the punch. She grabbed Naruto's arm which was still over her shoulder, and bent over while throwing him in the air with a burst of chakra.

Naruto acrobatically landed on his feet and once more charged at Hinata, this time attacking with a flying kick.

Hinata smiled to herself as she held out one palm facing Naruto and her other palm behind her. Right before Naruto reached her; she quickly spun in rapid circles and yelled,

"Kaiten!"

Rotating at an insane speed, Hinata projected chakra from all of her chakra points and a protective sphere of chakra surrounded her while she spun.

Naruto's eyes widened as he neared her but it was too late for him to do anything as he was just about to hit her. _S-She mastered it! Amazing!_

When the inevitable collision occurred, Naruto's attack was stopped and the masked boy was painfully thrown backwards out of the fighting area, thus being disqualified.

Hinata slowed down to a stop and saw that Naruto had been thrown out of the area. She let out her breath and sighed in relief as she won the battle. _She _knew that Naruto was probably still better at taijutsu than she was, (he really isn't though), but she surprised him just like Sai surprised Sasuke with a new move.

"Winner, Hinata Hyuuga!"

Everybody clapped as Hinata moved on to the finals. As she walked out of the sparring area to take a few moments of rest, Naruto ran towards her and enveloped the shy girl in a big hug.

"Hinata-chan, that was _amazing_! _You're _amazing!" he yelled, pulling his head back so that he could look in her face.

Hinata blushed a deep crimson that made Sasuke's Sharingan look like a pale pink and slowly passed out from having too much Naruto in one moment. She smiled in as she fell into the worried Naruto's arms. _Naruto-kun…_

Naruto looked worried at his fallen comrade.

"Do you think that she exerted herself with that new move?!" he asked everybody, blaming himself for her being unconscious. Well it _was _his fault, he just didn't know why.

Sasuke sighed to himself as he pulled out his orange book from his crimson tunic.

"Naruto-_baka_," he said, leaning against the tree and coolly reading his book, "One of these days I'm going to tell you why Hinata passes out all the time around you. Better yet, why don't you ask her yourself when you two are alone when she wakes up? Now that she's in no condition to fight, why don't the rest of us go get something to eat?"

Everybody grunted in response. Sai was happy that he wouldn't be the victim of Jyuuken, and gratefully followed everybody else out of the Naruto's house and compound as they talked about which restaurant they would eat at.

Naruto sighed beneath his white mask and looked at the unconscious Hinata in his arms. He brushed away some stray hairs out of her still slightly blushing face and looked at her.

_Man, Hinata-chan has gotten really pretty! She's definitely the cutest girl in our class! I have no doubt that all of the boys will be going after her when she gets older!_

Strangely, as Naruto carried Hinata bridal-style into his house to prepare something to eat, he found that he didn't like that idea.

_Later, Hyuuga Compound, Evening_

"Come on, Neji!" Naruto pleaded with the Hyuuga, begging with his folded hands. "You gotta help me out here!"

The Hyuuga crossed his arms and put on a scowl but couldn't help but smirk at Naruto's antics.

"Okay, fine! I'll help you! But pay attention so you can do this by yourself later!"

"Yatta!" Naruto yelled, pumping his fist into the air.

Naruto had left Hinata at his house and had come into the Hyuuga compound later that evening because he had wanted to get a snack for Hinata-chan. While going to the store, he had realized that he had no idea what type of food Hinata _really_ liked! Whenever she made food, she made _his _favorite foods!

Naruto opted to go ask Hinata's cousin what food she likes and give Hinata a big hug later for always thinking about him. _I can't believe I never asked what her favorite food is!_

The Neji was ten-years-old, one year older than Naruto and his friends. The Hyuuga was considered a prodigy of his clan, not as much as Hinata, but still amazing for his age. Not only that, but Neji was stronger than most people knew because Hinata had secretly been giving him private scrolls to study off of and sometimes she would give Neji her own lessons. Hinata had always hated the separation of families, so she thought that it was unfair that she would learn the advanced techniques while he wouldn't. True to everyone's word, Neji was a genius and immediately learned whatever Hinata taught him. And because of this, Neji had found a respect for Hinata and for Naruto as well for helping Hinata become strong.

Now, with a notebook and pencil in hand, Naruto was following Neji around the Hyuuga compound. While they were making their way to the main dining hall of the compound, Hizashi, Neji's father, walked by holding a bagel of some sort.

"Hey there Neji, what's going on?" he asked, curious as to why Naruto was following his son around with a notebook.

"Nothing, really," Neji responded. "Naruto just wants to learn about Hinata, that's all."

Hizashi snickered and moved on down the hallway. Naruto was irritated at being snickered at and asked Neji,

"What was that laugh about?"

Neji merely shook his head and ignored the question. At the end of the hallway, the two entered the large wooden doors that lead into the main cafeteria/dining area of the Hyuuga Compound.

_Hyuuga Dining Area_

The two continued to walk down the cafeteria, heading towards a door in the back. The room was fairly large and was meant to be able to hold all of the Hyuugas at once. Now, however, there were only several long wooden tables filled with Hyuugas.

Neji led them all the way to the back of the room and pushed through a door behind the food counters. Chefs were placing an assortment of food on the counters, much like a buffet.

_Hyuuga Kitchen_

Upon entering the kitchen, Neji turned to Naruto and began lecturing him.

"Alright Naruto, pay attention! First of all, Hinata's favorite food happens to be cinnamon rolls!"

Naruto nodded his head in understanding and began to jot down some quick notes.

"You could just ask the chefs to make some rolls for you, but by making food yourself, it shows that you care more about the person and took more time out of your schedule to make the food, much like Hinata always does for you."

Naruto nodded once more and wrote that down. _Make…food…yourself…more…meaningful …say…thank you…to…Hinata-chan…_

"Alright then, let's start by making the sweet sauce that goes with the rolls! Remember that rolls can be eaten for breakfast or for a snack, so we will also have to make some sort of meal!"

_Evening, Naruto's House, Astral Observatory, Outside_

Hinata woke up and yawned after a good afternoon nap (passing out) and looked around, trying to figure out where she was.

She looked out to the beautiful view of Konoha before her and immediately recognized that she was at Naruto's house, on top of the astral observatory. She looked around more and realized that she was alone.

_I-If I would have woken up earlier, I would probably be eating dinner with Naruto-kun and everybody else right now!_

Suddenly, movement below caught the attention of her pearly eyes and she walked more over the edge of the tower, looking below.

"…Hinata-chan!" she finally heard, noticing a blue figure approaching.

Naruto-kun! _He looks so small from up here…_

Naruto ran down the main street of his compound until he finally reached the gate of his house. He pressed his hand against the seal which opened the gates and allowed him entry to his house. Hinata noticed that he was carrying some bags with him.

Instead of going through his house to reach her, Naruto jumped up onto his two-story roof and ran down it until he reached the tower of the astral observatory. Using chakra in his feet, he began to walk up the height of the tower.

Hinata pulled back from the edge as she began twiddling with her fingers. _What does Naruto want?! I'm going to be alone with Naruto-kun!_

She looked back over the edge to see how long until he reached the top…

But she didn't see him!

"Hiya, Hina-chan!" Naruto greeted, appearing behind her.

"Eep!" she yelled in a surprised response, quickly turning around to face Naruto.

"N-Naruto-kun, w-wh-"

Suddenly, Hinata unconsciously backed up a little bit, even though she had nothing to walk on. When she placed her weight in her back foot, only to find that she was stepping on air, she stumbled with herself with a moment, swinging her arms.

"Ah!" she screamed, leaning backwards and about to fall off the tower.

Naruto wouldn't allow it and grabbed one of her arms and pulled her in, saving her from falling off the tower. Sure, she could attach herself to the wall, mid-fall, or place chakra in her feet so the fall wouldn't damage her, but then she would've had to walk all the way back up again!

"Watch it there, Hinata!" Naruto warned, eye-smiling, still holding her close to him.

He let go and walked over to where he set his homemade food.

"Guess what, Hinata-chan!" he asked, eagerly waiting a response.

"W-W-What is it Naruto-kun?" she replied, still a little flustered from being saved by Naruto.

"I made dinner for you!!!"

Hinata stared in shock at the groceries around Naruto. _Naruto-kun…spent his time to m-make me dinner…_

Ruining the shocking moment, Hinata's stomach let out a loud growl revealing how hungry she actually was.

Naruto laughed at the shy girl's expense.

_Later_

"Naruto-kun, how did you know?" she asked excitingly, after finishing dinner. She and Naruto where sitting on the porch swing Naruto had set up a while back and Naruto had showed her what was going to be for dessert.

"Hinata-chan, you're my best friend! Of course I would have to know what your favorite food is!" he honestly replied. He _had _wanted to make her enjoy what he made, after all.

Hinata blushed a great deal and appreciatively took the cinnamon roll that Naruto was offering her. She took one bite and her eyebrows rose up above her pearly eyes.

"It's delicious!"

_Later_

After finishing the dessert Naruto had made, the two nine-year-olds sat together enjoying each other's company, watching the sunset fall over Konoha while swinging on the porch swing. It was truly a serene evening, and the warm weather cloaked the Village with an affectionate feeling.

Naruto's mind, however, was anything but peaceful. There was one question that kept pestering him, and finally he had to ask Hinata.

"Hinata-chan," he asked, turning to his friend.

Hinata turned and looked up at Naruto with her ever-innocent eyes.

"Hmm?" she replied, curious as to what Naruto wanted.

Naruto sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Hinata-chan, why…why do you blush a lot when you are around me?"

Hinata's eyes widened as Naruto asked a question that she certainly didn't want to answer. She knew that she couldn't lie to Naruto-kun, so what would she say now?! She pressed her fingers together in a bad habit as she tried to respond.

"Ano…Naruto-kun…I…I…"

_Flashback_

"_Hinata listen closely," she said again, her voice becoming somewhat quieter. Hinata didn't need to be told twice. She knew that for the rest of her life she would remember her mother's last words._

"_Regarding Naruto," she began, "remember to follow your heart. I know you love the boy and when the time comes, he will love you too, my dear. But that won't happen until it's too late unless you do something about it. There will be a decisive moment in your life, Hinata, which will decide whether or not you belong with Naruto. I had to go through the same situation once, with your father. My brain was telling me to stay quiet and do nothing when the time came, but instead I followed my heart, and now I'm happily married to the love of my life. I hope when that time comes with you and Naruto, you will listen what your heart is telling you. You have the heart of a lion, Hinata, I'm sure that it won't be hard hear it. Be bold, my beautiful daughter! And know…know that I always loved you so much."_

_End of Flashback_

Hinata closed her eyes as tears threatened to come and she shook her head. No. She didn't have the courage…she didn't have the courage to tell Naruto how she felt. Things were going so well for her! Naruto considered her to be his best friend! What if once he found out about her feelings, he thought that she was weird and wouldn't spend time with her anymore? What if he didn't love her back and their friendship would be forever awkward?! No, she couldn't tell him now. She…she just didn't have the courage.

"I-I can't tell you now, Naruto-kun…" she eventually said to the eager boy.

Naruto visibly saddened but he didn't continue. He could see how much this topic emotionally affected her and he wouldn't push it deeper. She was even teary-eyed! He scooted closer to her and placed his arm around her shoulders in a friendly (to him) way.

Hinata snapped out of her memories and ironically began to blush again.

"Is it okay if I make you blush?" Naruto asked, needing to know if it made her feel uncomfortable or hurt.

Hinata silently shook her head and relished the contact with Naruto.

The blonde boy smiled under his mask.

"Do you think that I will ever know why you blush, Hinata-chan?"

"I-I'll tell you…one day, Naruto-kun…one day…"

_Streets of Konoha_

Sasuke, Sai, Kakashi and Anko were walking the streets of Konoha after leaving the restaurant they had just eaten at.

"There's no way she would do that!!!" Anko said giddy with excitement.

Kakashi smirked. "Oh, she did it all right, and Sasuke and I have enough pictures for the majority of Konoha! Here's a sample, you can keep it!"

He reached into his ninja pouch and pulled out a photo of when Hinata kissed Naruto.

Anko squealed with excitement as she looked at the picture. Sai got a copy as well and smiled. He would have to paint a youthful portrait of this picture later.

"This is great!" Anko continued. "When do you plan to sabotage them?!?!"

"When the time is right, when the time is right…"

_About One Year Later, Sand Village_

Ten-Year-Old Gaara stood before his father who was seated behind his office desk, dressed in the formal Kazekage robes. Today was his birthday, but he knew that nobody would be throwing him a party. Yashamaru was the only one who had ever celebrated Gaara's birthday, but it turns out that it was all just an act, seeing how Yashamaru tried to kill him.

Tried and failed. Just like all the others who came after him.

Gaara knew that all the shinobi who attempted to assassinate him were Suna ninja, still wearing their headbands. That only meant that the Kazekage, his own father, sent out assassins to kill him…the failed experiment of Suna.

He had become too powerful for the Sand Village's liking, and now he was considered a threat because he might lose control of the demon Okami (wolf). But this was not true. Gaara could control and silence the Okami to a certain extent, and every time Gaara killed somebody, it was because _he _was angry, not the Okami.

Gaara had discovered that he was a Jinchuuriki one day while he was researching in the library. He was reading a scroll that he had hoped would describe his unique sand control powers. The scroll had said that the only other people who had possessed his power were the past Jinchuuriki that held the Okami, a demon that Suna village had control over. Gaara later concluded that he was a Jinchuuriki himself, which would explain why he was called a 'monster'. The first Jinchuuriki died the day the second one was born, and the second Jinchuuriki died the day the third one was born. Gaara found out that the last Jinchuuriki had died the day he was born. The ritual forcefully took out the Bijuu of one container, killing the host, and was sealed inside a newborn baby. This process required a human sacrifice.

Gaara also concluded that his own mother had been sacrificed for the sealing to take place. His mother had died the day he was born, his father had told him. He felt like spitting upon thinking of his father. The man who raised him like a weapon, tried to assassinate him, and killed his mother. His father would die. And he would kill him one day, after his father finished teaching him all that he knew. Nobody would miss him, Gaara knew. His father was a cold and harsh leader and was the type that would lead his own village into war for little reasons.

"You summoned me, Kazekage-sama," Gaara announced, refusing to call the man his father.

The dark man behind the desk chuckled.

"Yes, indeed I did. I have…a present for you, Gaara. Guard! Give it to him!"

The ANBU guard standing outside the office came in, carrying a…_gourd_! Gaara could immediately sense with his powers that there was sand filled within the gourd. Before the guard even reached Gaara, the red-headed boy held out his hand and summoned the sand gourd towards him.

The gourd obeyed, and levitated out of the man's hands and continued to float until it remained hovering in front of Gaara.

"As you can see," the Kazekage explained, "the gourd holds a certain amount of sand within it. The gourd itself is also made out of hardened sand. You will wear this across your back, Gaara, and it will make using _sand _techniques much easier for you. Why? Because if you merge the sand with your chakra, it will become your automatic defense mechanism and you will be able to control it as easily as you control your fingers."

Gaara nodded and strapped the somewhat heavy gourd on his back. It was also small, but it the perfect size for a ten-year-old like Gaara. He frowned as he thought about how much time he had with the gourd. As soon as he would grow…

"When you grow, Gaara, you can reshape the sand gourd and resize it to fit you when the time comes. Now, leave my office and train with your new weapon!" he ordered, telling him to leave. He had important matters to attend to, with the sudden betrayal of someone in the Bird Country…

Gaara nodded and used a short-range _sand _teleportation jutsu and dispersed into tiny pieces of sand, which crumbled into nothingness on the office floor.

_Weeks Later, Night_

Gaara sat alone on top of his roof, staring at the moon with the entire night ahead of him. The darkness was young, and nearly all the villagers had turned off their house lights and had fallen asleep.

Gaara deeply inhaled as he appreciated the quietude of the night. It was a time when he was completely alone; it was a time when he could think to himself.

Ever since Yashamaru had tried to kill him, Gaara had turned worse than his original self had been before Naruto and his friends had arrived, and now he could only feel hatred to the villagers around him. He had become secluded, yet more intelligent before as he now thought with the cold power of logic instead of hope. He no longer wished to play with those _fools _at the park, nor did he want their attention. They were pathetic and he wouldn't even waste his time with them.

Without even moving a muscle, Gaara summoned the sand from the gourd strapped around his back and made it dance before him; it spiraled and turned in circles in the middle of the air. By combining all of the sand in the gourd with his chakra, he now had complete control over every grain. He had completely mastered using it; he didn't even have to use his hands to move it. It was like an extension of his chakra system and all he had to do was move his chakra and the sand would move. In a matter of weeks, Gaara had become much more powerful than before.

Suddenly, the silence of the night was disrupted and Gaara could hear footsteps echoing down the road, along with…crying? Yes, Gaara could hear someone running in his direction, crying out in a young girl's voice.

Gaara didn't really care so he remained seated on the roof, internally debating as to whether or not he should kill whoever was ruining his time of silence.

_Streets of Suna_

Kairi desperately tried to suppress her sobs as she ran through the streets of this unknown village trying to find where she was supposed to go. She was lost…and it was late out. She was hungry…but she had no idea where to go!

She gritted her teeth and moved on as tears streamed down her face.

_Flashback, Kazekage Office_

_Knock, knock!_ "Kazekage-sama!"

The busy Kazekage put down his papers and told them to come in.

"Enter," was all he said.

Two Chunin opened the door and pushed a girl in the office. The shy looking girl seemed to be ruffled up and not in a good condition.

"Who is this?!" the Kazekage demanded, mad that his time would be wasted by the presence of a child.

"M-My name is Kairi!" the girl eventually stumbled out. The Chunin spoke up for her next.

"We found her outside the perimeters of our village, so we decided to let her in. She claims that she is from the Bird Country."

Now the girl had the Kazekage's total attention.

"Oh? That's interesting. Tell me, girl, did your father happen to be…Tahiro?"

The girl's eyes widened in shock, but she truthfully nodded her head. The Chunin were confused about who this man was. The Kazekage explained to them,

"I received notice from the Bird Country that a man named Tahiro betrayed the secret location of the daimyo's hideout, threatening his life. By doing so, he committed treason and was sentenced to death after the attack on the daimyo was over and the daimyo was assassinated. His whole family was to be executed, but his daughter had…vanished!" He laughed cruelly and continued.

"Yet…here she is standing before me. What ever shall I do with you now?"

Kairi tried hard not to cry. If this man knew of her father, then surely she would be sent back to her home country and be sentenced to death…

"Let me tell you something," the Kazekage explained. "I never really liked the daimyo of Bird Country. In fact, I'll let you in on a certain secret. It was _me _who sent the assassins to kill your daimyo! And by your father committing treason to your country, he was actually being loyal to mine! So I will…let you live in the village. You will not be able to join the ninja academy, but you will be given an apartment and you will be allowed to work and live here."

He turned to the Chunin. "Now get this scum out of my office!"

The Chunin smiled and after handing the girl a pair of keys to her new apartment, they forcefully shoved her out onto the streets of Suna, not even telling her where to go.

_End of Flashback_

Kairi now roamed the streets of Suna, sobbing and trying to figure out where she lived. But the village was so big! How was she supposed to find just one apartment in it?!

Suddenly, she stopped in shock as…_sand_…formed in front of her for a moment. It spiraled around for almost a second before…a boy appeared out of the sand! She was about to yell in shock but she realized that the boy seemed to be her age.

Maybe he could…help her…

Gaara appeared from the sand; arms crossed, and stared at the girl with amusement. This girl was not from his village; this he could instantly tell. Everyone in the village knew him as a demon of the night. If they were walking down an alley during the night and interrupted his peace, he would appear before them, and they would run away like mindless chicken. This girl still stood still, which was a dead giveaway that she wasn't from here. Also, all of the villagers knew not to walk around this part of the village at night. Gaara chose to speak with her before decided to do anything rash.

"You are not from this village," was all he ended up saying. The young girl before him was about his height and probably his age. She had medium length silver hair that fell straight to her back. Her eyes were surprisingly…purple?

Kairi nodded. "I-I am not. B-But, I need your help!" she pleaded, folding her hands over her chest.

Gaara did nothing and waited for her to continue.

She bowed her head and looked at her feet in embarrassment.

"I-I don't know where I a-am, and I n-need to get to my a-apartment," she said, holding out her keys to show Gaara.

Gaara closely inspected the keys with his eyes, not once moving from his spot and frowned at the girl.

"I know where the apartment buildings are, but you will not enjoy living there," he stated.

Kairi was confused. "W-What do you mean?" she asked.

Gaara repeated what he said before.

"You will not enjoy living in those apartment buildings. There are homeless people who would rather sleep in the park than stay there. I do not think that the buildings are suitable for living. They are meant…for traitors."

Kairi frowned as she looked at the worthless keys in her hand. _Now where am I going to go?_

"I am curious as to why the Kazekage would sentence you to live in those buildings. I…" Gaara stopped talking as he looked at Kairi.

She was so…helpless. No family, no idea where to go. Gaara felt like horrible when he thought about killing the girl. The way she looked at him with hopeful eyes…

"Follow me."

What he said wasn't a question, and he turned around and began to walk back to his house.

Kairi nodded and quickly followed.

_Gaara's House_

Gaara's house was a large apartment situated in a medium size apartment building. The building was unsurprisingly empty as no one wanted to share the same building with the 'failed experiment' or the 'demon child'. Gaara lived on the third floor of the building; the first two floors were empty. They were meant for middle-class citizens who had enough money to stay there.

Gaara walked around the grand entrance and up the curving stairs until he reached the second floor. Kairi followed close behind the red-headed boy with a sand gourd on his back.

The second floor consisted of a small hallway with only two doors; one on the left and one on the right.

"This will be your room for the night," Gaara told Kairi, pointing to the door on the left. "This is your bathroom," he continued, pointing to the door on the right.

Kairi was speechless. Why was this boy allowing her to stay in this nice building?! Surely there were others living here who would not want her to live here! Why was this place abandoned?!

"There is no one else living here," Gaara stated, reading her mind. "And you don't have to thank me. My quarters are on the third floor; _do not_ go up there!" he warned.

"Also, there is a shower in your room which is fully functional. Go and take one now. I will find you some spare clothes."

Gaara then turned around and continued walking up the stairs to the third floor, leaving behind a shocked girl.

_I don't even know his name…_

_Later_

Kairi scolded herself for taking too long of a shower. It wasn't really her fault though; she hadn't showered since she left her village. She walked out of the bathroom with her towel on (checking both ways to make sure the red-headed kid wouldn't peak on her) and saw that there was a pile of folded clothes on her bed.

She smiled as she picked up the shirt which was probably made for a male shinobi. It was definitely the red-headed boy's shirt, and she felt honored that he would give her one of his shirts. She dropped her towel and put on the clothes provided for her.

_2nd Floor, Kitchen_

Gaara finished making some making a sandwich for her because he decided that the girl must have traveled a long distance and was more hungry than tired. He had thrown out her old dirty clothes and he had no doubt that she wouldn't miss them. After looking at the type of clothing that she wore and its quality, he concluded that she came from a poor family.

He turned to look down the hallway and he saw that the girl was coming down the hallway, dressed in his clothes. The kitchen was located down the single hallway. He could see the staircase from his current position.

When she finally entered the kitchen, Gaara spoke up before she could start thanking him. He placed the sandwich on the table next to some water.

"Eat this; then eat no more. It is better for you to slowly adjust back to your regular eating level than to eat a lot in a small time. When you finish eating, return to your quarters and sleep. If you have any questions, don't ask me because I don't want to be bothered. You will leave in the morning and I will find you a suitable apartment building to live in."

With that, he disappeared once more in a swirl of sand leaving a starving Kairi to enjoy her meal.

_Rooftop_

Gaara appeared back on top of his rooftop, and resumed his previous hobby of staring at the moon. He had left the girl to eat alone because he didn't think anyone who was starving would make a good conversation while stuffing themselves.

_Why…why did I invite her into my building…?_

_Next Day, Morning_

Kairi had woken up in a bed, which utterly surprised her. She had to think for a moment before she remembered where she was.

_The red-headed kid let me in his house…I still don't know his name! I must thank him for allowing me to stay here! But…how long will he allow me to stay here? Maybe he is meeting with the Kazekage now to discuss getting me a new apartment!!! I don't want to have to deal with any of the Sand Shinobi!_

She got out of her bed, and after making it, she walked out of her room and into the kitchen, hoping that the boy would still be there

_Kitchen_

All there was in the kitchen was a note on the table. She picked it up and examined it. It read:

_Kairi, eat what you want from my kitchen. Do not leave my house unless you feel that you will be able to remember where it is. Getting lost in the Suna village will only result in your death. I will return…_

Kairi put the note down and panicked for a moment. _How could he have found out what my name was?! He must have talked with the Kazekage!! Does that mean…that…but he told me to stay here…_

Confused, Kairi chose to eat while she could.

_Later, Afternoon_

Gaara returned to his house after training to see how Kairi was doing. He had indeed found out her name and much more when he had met with his father early in the morning. He had asked him why he saw a girl roaming the streets of Suna last night. The Kazekage had told him that the girl's name was Kairi, and that she had run away to Suna because her father betrayed the daimyo. Gaara was agitated to find out that it was his father who sent ninjas to kill the daimyo of the Bird Country. He had asked his father to give him new keys to a better apartment building, and his father agreed.

When he neared his building, he teleported to an open window on the second floor in the kitchen, disappearing in a swirl of sand.

_Gaara's House_

Kairi sat bored in the kitchen, wondering what she was going to do for the rest of the day. She had listened to the red-headed boy's advice and had stayed in his house after eating breakfast. She explored the first two floors of the building, respecting Gaara's wish and not going to the third floor. But now it was nearing lunch, and she began to hunger once more.

"Follow me," Gaara ordered, appearing out of nowhere and crouching down on the windowsill.

Kairi squealed in surprise and fell over off of her chair at the sudden appearance of the boy.

When she got up, blushing from embarrassment, she turned to him and said,

"Hey, you know it's rude to…"

She was talking to herself; Gaara was no longer on the windowsill.

She ran over to the open window and looked below, where she saw him standing in the streets with his arms crossed.

She backed up from the window and ran over to the right a little bit where she saw a door which she discovered earlier led to a balcony.

Upon going out onto the balcony, she looked down to Gaara once more.

"If you jump," he called up to her, "my sand will catch you."

Kairi looked below from the two story buildings and had doubts that she would be caught. In truth, she suffered from a fear of heights and she even had trouble jumping on her bed because she feared that she might fall off.

"N-N-No, I can't!" she pleaded out to him, clutching the railing of the balcony.

Gaara shook his head in boredom and with his chakra he called forth his sand.

Suddenly, Kairi was lifted up off of the balcony on a platform of sand.

"Ah!" she screamed falling to her knees in an attempt not to fall off the platform.

However, instead of being thrown down, the sand platform slowly and unbelievably steadily flew down to the outside streets, next to Gaara. When it landed, she stood up and walked forward a little bit, shaking a little and dusting off her clothes.

She finally turned to Gaara and said,

"W-What is your name?"

Gaara turned away and walked down the streets.

"Gaara…Gaara of the Desert."

Kairi nodded and began to run to catch up with him.

_Streets of Suna_

Gaara led Kairi to a different section of the Sand Village, where there were more shops and more buildings close together. He eventually stopped in front of one building and stated,

"This is your apartment building. Your room is on the third floor. I have given you food in your refrigerator and money in the drawers so that you can by food later when you run out. There is also a map which will help you around the village. The Kazekage will pay the rent and other bills that will come to you. Good-bye."

With that, Gaara left Kairi in front of the building

_Weeks Later, Park_

Gaara closed his eyes sat to himself in the park on the familiar swing. He sat there to think, not to play, as he had to restore his chakra before he had to train again. The area where Gaara was went unused by the children and they usual played on the other end of the park. Right now, a group of children his age were playing soccer.

_I have mastered the art of controlling my sand freely. Before I report this to the Kazekage, I will have to show him that I have mastered using it in combat as well. I wonder how much longer it will take until-_

"Hey! Gaara!" said a voice nearing the meditating boy.

Gaara opened his eyes and saw that…Kairi was running toward him.

"What are you doing here?!" the excited girl asked, hopping in front of him.

Gaara remained silent and closed his eyes, returning to his meditation.

"Why don't you come and play with everyone else?" Kairi tried asking again.

Gaara remained silent again.

"Do…do you want to play with me?" Kairi asked the silent boy, being persistent.

Gaara opened his eyes and responded.

"Leave me be; I have nothing to play. I must leave to train."

With that, Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand, leaving behind a confused Kairi.

_Next Day, Park_

Gaara once more sat in the park having just finished his training. He needed to relax and restore his chakra.

…_I-_

"Gaara!" shouted a girl's voice from far away.

Gaara cursed to himself as didn't even have time to start meditating. He continued to close his eyes in hopes that the annoying girl would leave him be. Sure, many months ago he would have loved someone to play with, but now, he realized that forming a relationship would only result in pain. Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Sai had left him and Yashamaru had tried to kill him.

"Come on, Gaara! Why don't you come and play with me! It's the least I can do after you've helped me find an apartment and given me food!"

Gaara spoke up, using his trump card to make her run away.

"I am a monster. You do not want to play with me!" he almost yelled, angry at the girl.

Kairi sweetly laughed at him.

"You! A monster?! How could you be a monster when you went out of your way to help me before?!"

Gaara remained silent as he cursed to himself.

_How much longer will she continue to pester me?!_

_Weeks Later, Night_

Gaara sat on top of his roof which was custom for him at night. He had always found it more peaceful than staying inside his house. By staying outside, he could see a lot of the village and the beautiful sky. The silence was also welcoming to him, because unlike the day, the night was completely silent.

Ironically, right after Gaara thought that, he heard some noises coming down the street. He felt a large wave of déjà vu pass over him when saw a crying girl running down the street.

_If this is another girl that came from a different village…maybe I should kill her so that she won't continue to ask me to be her friend when I save her!_

Kairi had been constantly asking Gaara everyday for him to play with her, and everyday Gaara said no. He wouldn't make the mistake of making a friend again; all that it would lead to is pain! Curious, Gaara teleported below to intercept the path of the running girl.

_Streets of Suna_

Gaara appeared in a swirl of sand, and to his surprise, he found Kairi there before him, sobbing. He once again felt guilty for thinking of hurting a crying helpless girl running down the streets at night, so he asked her,

"Kairi, what's wrong?"

Kairi sobbed loudly as she was unable to respond.

Annoyed, Gaara grabbed her and jumped back up to his rooftop as he waited for her to till him her story. Eventually, she calmed down and she was able to.

For the past week, Kairi had been living on the streets of Suna, sleeping in the park. Her neighbors had kicked her out of her apartment, finally finding out that she was a traitor from a different village. They tore up her apartment building, making sure that she didn't have any money or any food. She had been starving on the streets, living off of the garbage of others. She had been constantly abused and mistreated by the adults who found out that she was a traitor.

When she finished telling Gaara what was happening to her, she fell asleep due to exhaustion on Gaara's shoulder. That night, Gaara's heart had softened and he finally welcomed Kairi to be his friend.

_Morning_

Kairi was once again shocked as she had woken up to find that she was…in a bed. She quickly looked around her and found that she was in the familiar room of Gaara's house. She smiled as she thought about the red-haired boy.

_Gaara-kun…_

_Weeks Later, Suna Training Grounds_

"Gaara, it seems that you have mastered controlling sand with your will. Now it is time to learn specific jutsus that will be much more powerful," the Kazekage commanded, throwing Gaara a scroll titled: _Prison Sand Burial_

Gaara opened the scroll and read the description.

_Will loosen the ground below the target and cause them to sink two hundred meters into the earth. By being imprisoned at this depth, the pressure will completely nullify their ability to move. Also, the pressure resulting from being buried at such an extreme depth will kill any normal human._

Gaara nodded understanding. It was like quicksand, using his powers. The scroll listed five hand-seals that were necessary. The last seal was a palm-seal (slapping palms together and holding) and this was necessary because Gaara had to manually control were the earth would turn into his sand.

"Return to me when you have mastered this jutsu," the Kazekage ordered before disappearing from sight.

Gaara nodded. It would take him up to a month before he completely _mastered _the jutsu. Mastery means that he would be able to perform the jutsu with perfect control and with the perfect chakra amount, by only using the palm-seal.

Practicing the jutsu out, Gaara formed the necessary hand-seals and thought,

_Prison Sand Burial!_

He focused his chakra to where there was a wooden dummy standing, and instantly, directly underneath the dummy's feet, a small pool of spinning sand began to form. The spinning sand grew wider, until it was about two meters in diameter. The dummy slowly began to sink, and it was at the point where the sand was almost up to the dummies knees…

When the sand stopped moving and the dummy ceased to sink any further.

_Kuso! This technique is harder than I thought…_

_Later, Afternoon, Park_

Gaara had taken Kairi out to a restaurant later that day where they ate together, earning themselves some hateful glares which went unnoticed by Kairi. The meal had been silent and somewhat awkward (for Kairi). She attempted to formally introduce herself by stating her name, age and dreams for the future. Gaara only told her that he was the same age as her, though older by a few months. Afterwards, Gaara began to show Kairi around the village, enough so that she would know where certain stores were, and what signs to look for that would lead her back to his house.

Now, they were at the park. Gaara had told her to play with her friends while he meditated.

"Well, do you play here?" she had just asked as they were walking to where they could see some kids playing soccer.

Gaara shook his head. "I have no time for playing. Also, the children will not allow me to play with them. Do not…do not ask why." Gaara said, uncharacteristically looking to the side.

Kairi smiled a little bit to herself. Maybe nobody wanted to play with him because he acted so mature for his age! He did act way too adult-like and 'childish' was the complete antonym for describing Gaara.

"Play with these children and introduce yourself. Do not affiliate your name with mine; I don't think you would be accepted if you were to. You have about…an hour before we must leave."

Kairi nodded and ran forward to play with the children.

_Thirty Minutes Later_

Kairi left the group of kids her age who were now playing 'ninja' to find Gaara, who happened to be sitting on a nearby swing with his sand gourd laying next to him.

She approached him in a cheerful manner; she had just had a pretty fun time playing soccer.

"Hey, Gaara!" she greeted, sitting in the swing next to him.

He curiously looked at her.

"You…are finished playing?" he asked, trying to figure out why she would stop so soon. He had been thinking that she would forget about him and continue playing with the kids after an hour!

"Yeah, silly!" she responded with a giggle. "Playing soccer was fun, but it wasn't _that _fun! I also felt kinda bad that you were staying over here not playing…" she finished, looking away from him in embarrassment.

Gaara's nonexistent eyebrows rose above his eyes in shock. _She had…felt _bad_ for me?!?!_

It took several moments before he could respond.

"Very well, you can relax here for a while until we must leave."

Kairi nodded and jumped on the swing.

"You know," she stated in a chiding yet playful manner, "swings were made to be _swung_ on! You're not supposed just sit still on them!" she concluded with a giggle.

Gaara didn't respond and continued to sit still on the swing.

Kairi overdramatically sighed and ran behind Gaara.

"What are you-?"

Kairi pushed on the swing so that Gaara went up a normal amount before coming back down again. When he returned to his initial position, Kairi once more pushed him so that he would go higher.

"See?!" she laughed as she continued to push Gaara. "Isn't this much better than just sitting still?!"

Gaara was amazed at how it felt to go back and forth on a swing. In truth, he never used a swing because he didn't know how to. He never had the time to learn how to use a swing, and he never closely saw anyone else doing it!

Eventually, Kairi got tired and moved out of the way so that Gaara would slow down to a stop. She walked next to Gaara and sat on the other swing and turned to him.

"Now you have to push _me _on the swing!" she claimed, smiling at him.

Gaara fought down a smile that had somehow managed to come up to his face, and called out some sand from his gourd to push Kairi.

_Months Later, Gaara's House_

"Good morning, Gaara-kun!" Kairi called out as Gaara entered the kitchen. Ever since that one night, Gaara had let her move into his apartment building. This morning Kairi had woken up extra early so that she could make breakfast for Gaara. Getting up before Gaara was fairly difficult, seeing how he never goes to sleep in the first place, so she had to make breakfast before he returned from his morning training. She was even wearing a cooking apron to make herself look more authentic!

"I made some breakfast for you!" she explained, pointing to the food on the table meant for two. Bagels, honey and some eggs with two nice rice-balls on the side were put in the center of the table between the two chairs.

Gaara _smiled _at Kairi and thanked her.

"Thanks, Kairi! I'm glad that you're starting to actually do some of the work around here!" he joked, earning himself a playful punch in the arm, courtesy of Kairi. Well, more specifically it was an attempt to punch Gaara in the arm! His sand came up and intercepted her fist by forming a wall in front of his arm, aggravating the girl.

"Hey, stop doing that!" she said in a childish complaining manner. "You did that on purpose! You have to take your punches when you deserve them!"

She indeed was correct by saying that Gaara _did _defend himself on purpose. Gaara had discovered after the first week of meeting Kairi that she could actually…touch him! For some reason, the automatic sand shield didn't come up whenever she wanted to touch him! Gaara had no idea why and he was completely shocked at the miracle.

The first time Gaara had discovered this was about a month after he first met her. He had found a job for her so that she could utilize her time better in the Sand Village. He had walked over to the nearby flower shop because Kairi had said that her favorite hobby was pressing flowers. The woman in charge agreed to let Kairi work there with no pay until she understood everything.

Kairi had found her dream job and when she returned home that day she had ran up to Gaara and given him…a hug!

When Gaara first saw her running toward him he had thought that she was trying to tackle him or something. He stood still and waited for his shield to protect him…

But it never did! Kairi had actually given him a hug! But because of her moving momentum and that Gaara was so caught off guard, she actually _had _ended up tackling him, causing him to fall backwards with her on top of him.

When he had fallen, his gourd had turned into sand to protect him, but it still had done nothing to the girl who was laughing and squeezing him on top of him.

Gaara would never admit it, but he had liked the experience.

Weeks later, Gaara had made fun of her for tripping in the middle of the street while they were walking to the training grounds where Gaara would practice his jutsu. Kairi had gotten annoyed that Gaara didn't 'save her with his sand' and Gaara had replied 'the sand won't protect a baka that doesn't know how to walk'.

She had playfully punched him in his arm, and to his surprise, she actually hit him! It took him awhile to register the feeling of…pain that was pulsing through his arm and Gaara had remained silent the rest of the day, freaking out while he tried to figure out what happened.

Kairi of course had thought that she had done something really wrong so she tried to make it up to him. She brought home a special flower that she had personally pressed in attempts to make amends.

She had entered the kitchen to find Gaara holding a knife to his wrist.

"No, Gaara! What are you doing?! I'm really sorry for what I did; please don't kill yourself!!" she had shouted out, running over to him.

She didn't make it, and Gaara had thrust the knife down on his forearm.

But, his sand had protected him as he thought it would.

"I've never been hit before," Gaara explained to the bewildered Kairi. "My sand will always protect me. But I don't know why you were able to punch me before," he had explained to her.

Now, Gaara had to willingly call up his sand if he wanted to defend himself against her. It was actually good practice, in his mind.

The two kids ate breakfast together and when they finished, Gaara announced,

"…Today is my birthday," he told Kairi, curious as to how she would react. Nobody ever celebrated his birthday, but what would Kairi, _his friend_, do?

Kairi yelled in excitement and began shouting out numerous things.

"Oh, that's great! Happy birthday Gaara-kun! We have to take the day off!! We can go play together, or watch a movie together! Then we could eat a nice lunch or something! And then, and then…!"

Gaara smiled to himself as Kairi went on and on.  
________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Night_

Gaara was sitting by himself, as usual, watching the moon and the dark village of Suna before him. Tonight was a really beautiful one; stars brilliantly lit the sky which had not a cloud in it.

Suddenly, Gaara sensed someone coming up behind him on the roof. Many months ago, he would have thought it was another assassin, but now Gaara could sense the familiar presence of Kairi walking behind him.

He turned his head to she her in her sleeping pajamas holding a plushie wolf doll to her chest.

"What's wrong, Kairi," Gaara asked as Kairi continued to walk toward him.

Kairi remained silent and continued walking. When she reached him, she sat down next to him and leaned into him.

Before Gaara could ask anything, she began to cry.

Gaara stared bewildered at the girl as Kairi sobbed into his shoulder, grabbing him and holding on to him like he would disappear if she didn't.

"K-K-Kairi, what's wrong?" Gaara asked again, he himself feeling pain at seeing his friend cry.

Eventually Kairi was able to control her sobs and spoke up, still with her face into Gaara's shoulder.

"Y-Y-You don't really know who I am Gaara!" she said, causing Gaara to become even more confused.

Gaara pulled back and looked into her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" he said, "Of course I do! You're Kairi, and you're my best friend!"

For some reason this caused Kairi to cry even more as she hugged him tighter.

"If you really knew me," she continued through sobs, "you wouldn't want to be my friend!" she exclaimed.

Gaara shook his head in somewhat amusement. He knew that her father betrayed his daimyo; he didn't care. It wasn't her fault! But it was _she _who didn't know him! If she knew that he had a demon inside of him…

"I-I-I came to Suna because they were going to kill me, just like they killed my mom and dad," she began, pulling back herself and looking away from Gaara.

"M-My father betrayed his country and revealed the location of our daimyo to a squad of assassins that came to kill him. I don't know why he did it; he just did! Our family had always been so poor! There were times when we only were able to afford one small meal a day. Maybe my dad thought that if there was a new daimyo, we would be able to gain our reputation and become somewhat richer…

"Once they found out that it was my father who betrayed us, they immediately sentenced him to death. They did the same with my mother, days later. The last thing I remember my mother telling me was to run away from the village! I c-couldn't do it, so she knocked me out and put me in a carriage that was making it's way toward Suna. I never saw her again," she said.

Gaara felt horrified that she had to go through all of this. Kairi continued.

"About three-fourths through the journey, I woke up and the driver of the carriage discovered that I was riding along. He forcefully kicked me out into the desert and left me to die. I had managed to take one bottle of water and a roll of bread with me, but that was it.

"I walked miles and miles into the desert, following the trail of the carriage, trying to find my way to whatever village it was heading to. After three days, I ate all of the bread and drank all of the water, and I thought that I was surely going to die there.

"Luckily, I stumbled upon an oasis and I was able to eat berries and drink water once more. I left during the night, because it was too hot to travel during the day, and I continued following the faint tracks of the cart. The tracks kept becoming harder and harder to read, and after two days, I lost the tracks.

"However, I could see the village on the horizon so I traveled there with all of the might that I had left. I made it to the village by nightfall and two guards escorted me to the Kazekage's office where he gave me some keys to an apartment. I was so tired and so hungry that when I couldn't find the apartment buildings I feared that I was going to die. That's…when I met you…and when you saved my life. I don't think I would have made it much longer. I asked several houses to let me in or tell me where my apartment was, but upon seeing the keys which I held, they all kicked me out on the street and called me a traitor. And then when you helped me again when I was kicked out of my apartment and you let me live with you…"

Gaara felt a tear come down his face as he listened to her story. He almost puked when he thought about how he wanted to kill the girl at first, after she went through all that she did.

"But do you see?!" Kairi exclaimed, "I'm nothing but a poor and filthy traitor to my village! I don't deserve to be treated so kindly by you! I-"

"I have five friends Kairi. No more, no less. You are my only friend in this village. Not even my family will treat me nice. I have no friends to play with in the park. People run away from me in fear when I near them. I cannot sleep at night. I have the power to control sand like no one else does. I live in an empty apartment building. Have you ever thought why, Kairi?" Gaara asked, fearing that he was about to lose friend number five.

Kairi silently shook her head as it came to her that everything he said was true.

"Years ago, recently after the creation of our village, Okami, the one-tailed demon wolf began heading towards our village to attack it for unknown reasons. Not even our First Kazekage could measure up to its power!

"However, the First Hokage of the Leaf Village came to our aid and with his legendary _nature _style attacks; he controlled the demon for us giving us all of its power.

"The Second Kazekage, not as grateful as the First, decided to play with the power of the Bijuu. He took the already controlled demon and sealed it within a newborn baby, using a special type of seal that would mix the wolf's _wind _chakra with the baby's _earth _chakra. This created the first Jinchuuriki of Suna."

Kairi was confused at to how this related to him.

"By sealing the demon wolf within someone who has earth chakra, they gain the power to automatically mix the chakras, creating a new chakra. There have been four Jinchuuriki's with this power. The power to completely control…_sand_."

Kairi's eyes widened as she realized what this meant.

"I am the fourth Jinchuuriki, and I have the one-tailed demon Okami sealed within me," Gaara stated, closing his eyes and waiting for her reaction.

Kairi remained silent for some time thinking about how she would respond.

"You don't act like a demon to me," she finally stated, turning her purple eyes to Gaara.

Gaara looked at her with surprise in his eyes. Kairi continued,

"It wasn't your fault, Gaara, for having the demon s-sealed inside of you. I c-can't hate you for something that wasn't your fault!"

Gaara smiled the biggest smile he could ever remember doing. Happiness and relief flooded through him so greatly that he thought he could start dancing. It was true that he used to act like a demon, after that fateful day when Naruto and his friends left him and Yashamaru tried to kill, but ever since Kairi came into his life, he felt that he didn't have any hate left to give!

"And I can't hate you for something that wasn't your fault," Gaara responded, smiling at the silver-haired girl.

Kairi shook her head with tears still falling down.

"You don't understand! I betrayed my village as well! I ran away when I was supposed to-"

Gaara cut her off and this time it was _him _who gave the bug hug. He completely enwrapped her, holding his best friend in his arms, reassuring her that it was going to be alright.

"Kairi, you are my best friend and I know it is selfish, but I am glad that you ran away. Because if you didn't, I wouldn't have met you. You won't ever have to worry about being in danger like that again, Kairi, because I will protect you. I will never leave you; I will protect you with my life!"

Kairi cried in tears of joy as she hugged Gaara back.

"You promise?" she asked, blissful at hearing her best friend say that.

"Promise! And as my other friend once taught me, I never go back on my word! That is my way of life!"

_Three Years Later_

Twelve-year-old Gaara got out of his bed and looked around his private room. He hadn't been sleeping, but he had been meditating and working on his chakra control. He looked around his medium sized room at all of the pictures that were now filling his room.

On top of his cabinet, there was a picture of him, Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Sai smiling in front of the Sand Village. Yashamaru had taken it before they had left.

Another picture next to it was Yashamaru himself, smiling at the camera.

Every other picture that littered the place was of Kairi, alone or with him. There were pictures ranging from when he was nine years old to his current age. Gaara smiled as he picked one of the first pictures he had ever taken with Kairi.

They were at a restaurant, and Kairi had asked someone nearby to take a picture of them. Kairi had bought herself a camera using the money she made from working at the flower shop. Gaara volunteered to pay, seeing how he was the son of the Kazekage and money was never a problem for him, but she insisted on using her own money. She and Gaara were smiling while sitting next to each other that afternoon.

The general population of Suna still treated Gaara like a monster, but Gaara had not once showed any act of aggression ever since he befriended Kairi. She had insisted that they would both be nice to everyone so that eventually people would start warming up to them. The female owner of the flower shop which Kairi worked at had actually changed and treated Gaara very nice now, to Kairi's delight.

Gaara smiled even wider as he looked at a more recent picture of himself and Kairi. He was putting his arm around her shoulders, and she was happily blushing while the picture took place. She had been growing out her hair after getting a short cut when she was eleven, and now it almost reached down to her lower back.

Gaara had also noticed that over the years…Kairi had become really pretty in his eyes. He now considered her to be really beautiful, and whenever he told her, she would always blush.

"Gaara-kun!" he heard Kairi shout from downstairs in the kitchen. "Breakfast is ready! Hurry up and get down here!"

Gaara put the picture down and ran downstairs, leaving his sand gourd by his bed.

_Later, Afternoon, Suna Training Grounds_

Gaara widely grinned when he mastered one of the forms of kenjutsu. It turns out that Kairi had never been taught the main three ninja arts, and she was not a ninja, but she knew her family's special kenjutsu. Over the past year Kairi had been the one teaching him, instead of the other way around like before in previous years, saying that 'he needed to learn some other fighting styles besides relying on his 'stupid' sand'. Gaara had actually agreed and had been willing to learn.

"Good job!" Kairi congratulated Gaara as he returned to his regular standing stance. In truth, Kairi wasn't much better than Gaara was now, only having mastered several forms herself, and Gaara would soon become better than her.

The weapon that they were both using was a thin oval metal staff that had a double-edged blade coming out of one end. The staff itself was a little smaller than the usual staff, but the blade at one end made it longer. Gaara's staff had tan training bandages which enwrapped the two parts where he held the staff with his hands so that he would have a better grip. The metal staff had no cross-guard at the end of it.

"Now, let's have a sparring match!" Kairi said excitingly.

Gaara nodded and formed his stance. He leaned back on his right leg, and he stuck out his left leg on the ground in front of him. His right hand was on the same level as his face, holding the end of the metal staff. His left hand was parallel with his left leg, pointing the staff diagonally to the ground. The blade at the end of the staff was closest to his left hand.

"Let's go!"

_Next Day, Kazekage's Office, Morning_

Gaara stood present before the Kazekage's desk. Instead of the usual ANBU guards standing next to him during any meeting, his two siblings, Temari and Kankuro stood beside him. Gaara gave his siblings cold looks before turning his attention back to the Kazekage.

"I have summoned you today, Gaara," the Kage began, "because we have important plans to discuss with you.

"The Chunin exams are coming up, and it is time for you to participate at last," he said.

Gaara nodded in understanding. This made sense; he was perfectly ready to take the exams. But he had always been ready to take the exams, ever since young. Why did his father decide now…?

"Your two partners will be your siblings, Temari and Kankuro," he continued, motioning to the two nervous children beside him, almost as if he thought that Gaara wouldn't even recognize them.

"You will stop spending time with that…_traitor_…and you will train with your siblings in preparation of the grand plan!" he ordered to Gaara.

Gaara already disagreed with this plan. There was no way that he would stop spending time with Kairi! And he had just called her a traitor! Besides, it was her _birthday _today and there was no way that he was going to miss it just to train with his two siblings. He had to restrain himself from attacking father and decided to play along.

"Oh? And what is this _grand plan_ that you speak of?" he finally asked.

The Kazekage laughed.

"This upcoming Chunin Exams, we will be allying ourselves with the new Sound Village and we will completely crush Konoha!"

_Secret Meeting, Afternoon_

The Kazekage sat at the front of the table with his robes on. Before him were seven Jonin sitting at the table.

"I have gathered you all here today to discuss with you all once more…our plan," the Kage announced.

The Jonin nodded together. They had not been gathered in this meeting since Yashamaru had been a member.

"Gaara has grown too powerful for any of our likings. Before, this has not been a problem. But earlier today Gaara has shown his first signs of defiance that he has ever shown me before. I told him of how we are going to invade Konoha during the Chunin Exams, and he openly denied the plan saying that he would be no part of it!"

All of the present Jonin gasped at this revelation. If Gaara would not come with them, then they would have to make a big change in plans…

"So I have finally come upon a conclusion regarding the boy. Gaara is no longer a convenient force of power. He has become a desert storm that may kill our enemies but may very well kill us as well! It is time we eliminate this threat. It is time that we…kill Gaara!"

Everybody agreed. Now it was time to begin forming plans.

"Gaara's strongest weapon is not his sand, but his intelligence. He uses the perfect jutsu for the perfect time. Gaara will always have sand with him, but if we take away his intelligence, he will surely fall into our traps and allow us to kill him in secret!" the Kazekage explained.

"But how will we take away his intelligence?" one of the present Jonin asked. The Kazekage continued.

"With anger! If we make him angry enough, he will lose control of his intelligence and make rash decisions! What I have gathered you all here today for, is that we need to make a plan that will-

"Kazekage-sama, if I may interrupt."

The Kage looked at the Jonin with curiosity as he sat up further. "What is it?"

The man gulped as he looked at him.

"Well, he has a relationship with a local peasant. She has no class standing, so there wouldn't be any problem with using her as…bait."

"Who's this...girl?"

"She's young and seems to be very close to him. I looked into it and found that she has no family and that she is living with Gaara. She is also the daughter of traitor who came to our village years ago. So perhaps..."

The Kazekage smiled viciously as he leaned back in his seat. "That is a wonderful idea! We'll use that traitor to get to Gaara." He held his hand out to all of the Jonin. "Go and capture this girl. Do whatever you want with her afterwards. Also, make sure that he will know where to come to our trap. I want him to come to me personally. It'll make things so much easier for us."

"But sir, aren't you worried that the boy might pose a threat to you or our village?"

The Kazekage scoffed. "He may be strong, but _I _am a Kage and I have several Jonin with me. Tonight, Suna will be rid of the demon boy!"

"Yes, Kazekage-sama. We will all be kidnapping her together, for some extra precaution."

"Yes, do whatever you want. Just make sure he gets here."

_Months Ago, Unknown Location_

Orochimaru walked down the medieval castle hallway of the Akatsuki hideout, wearing the black robes with red clouds on them. The ring on his right hand, which read _Serpent, _reflected the candle lights which illuminated the corridor.

When he reached the end of the hall, he stopped before the grand doorway of throne room. Taking a deep breath, he pushed one of the doors inward and walked into the large room.

Directly in front of the door was a blood red carpet which led straight to a large throne. Around the throne were eighteen smaller but elevated thrones. Orochimaru walked down the long red carpet until he reached the large throne. He kneeled down before his superior and said,

"Leader, you have summoned me."

The Evil King grinned darkly as he looked down at the kneeling Sannin.

"Yes I have. Tell me, Orochimaru, did Suna accept the plans to attack Konoha?" he asked.

Orochimaru grinned and stood up.

"Yes, the Kazekage seemed more than willing to!" he said in that evil and smooth sounding voice.

The Leader smiled to himself.

"Good. In several months, you and your partner from now on, who will be _bone_, will go to Suna and assassinate the Kazekage. Actually, _bone _should be coming right about now…"

True to his word, the throne doors opened far behind them and Kimimaro, dressed in the Akatsuki robes, walked down and kneeled before the Evil King with the ring labeled _bone _on his left hand.

"My master, I bring with me troubling news," he said. The Dark Lord raised and eyebrow and waited for the white-haired man to continue.

"Our _Weapons _specialist died in the attempts to kill the one known as Sasori," he said, now standing up next to Orochimaru.

The Evil King grinned.

"Is that so? There is no need to worry. Were you able to recover his ring?"

Kimimaro nodded and tossed the ring in the air to the Leader. Mid-flight, it stopped and hovered in the air as the King stared at it.

A purple chakra that resembled fire cloaked it for a moment, and the metal ring disintegrated into ashes and then into nothingness.

"This Sasori seems to be stronger than I had predicted. I will send my second-in-command, Pain, to go and get him to join our organization. Now, both of you go to Suna and kill the Kazekage! Report back to me using the _Astral Projection_ _Technique_ (Magic Lantern Body Technique) when you have successfully slain him. Dismissed!"

Orochimaru and Kimimaro instantly disappeared from the room.

_Present Time, Suna, Evening_

Orochimaru and Kimimaro now stood outside of Suna. Orochimaru, announced the senior and leader of the two man group, smiled as he thought of his plan to silently kill the Kazekage and take his place, using his unique jutsu.

"Let's go."

_Konoha, Outside, Night_

Twelve-years-old Naruto sat on top of his porch swing on the roof of the astral observatory with Hinata next to him. Sasuke was sitting on the edge of the roof in front of them, reading Icha Icha Paradise. He had been having a great day, but for some reason he felt…that something was off.

"What's wrong, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, sensing his discomfort.

"I don't know," he truthfully responded.

"I just have a feeling that something bad is going to happen tonight…"

_Gaara's House, Night_

Gaara finished drying his body after stepping out of the shower, and looked at himself in the mirror. His red hair was messily scattered over his face, so he tried to pick up a comb in attempts to make it neater. Tonight was a fairly important night for him! It was Kairi's birthday today, and he had asked her out on…a date! He asked her if she wanted to dine with him at a fancy restaurant, and she had said yes! Of course, she blushed a great deal once she realized that it was a date, but not out of shyness. No, Kairi only blushed out of sheer happiness. She was so delighted that Gaara liked her, and he was joyful that she liked him.

He sighed in happiness and he looked in the mirror to examine his attempts at making his hair neat.

…nope! He smacked his hair around to give it a messy look after deciding that 'neat' hair just doesn't fit him.

________________________________________________________________________ _One Hour Later, Kitchen_

Gaara now was leaning against his wall impatiently in the kitchen, dressed in a comfortable and expensive kimono, and was waiting until Kairi returned to his house. She was supposed to return about thirty minutes ago from the store. She had left to go and pick up the nice and expensive kimono that Gaara had bought for her. She claimed that she would return by 7:00, but now it was an hour past…

Somewhat worried, Gaara left his house to go and see what was taking her so long.

________________________________________________________________________ _Streets of Suna_

As Gaara walked down the streets of Suna, he found that his walk continued to grow faster until he was now jogging to the store. Sure, he was probably imagining the worst, but he _had _vowed to protect her forever, so he could never be too unsafe…

When he finally reached the store, his heart froze as he saw that the windows were shattered.

He quickly ran inside and saw that the inside of the store was in a complete mess; clothes of all type were littering the ground. He heard a grumble in front of the store, so he ran over to investigate.

To his horror, he saw the owner of the shop lying on the ground covered in bloody kunai wounds. He ran up to him, and noticed that the man had no fatal wounds; he would live.

"Th-Th-The…th-th-th-the girl…" the owner managed to stumble out as blood dripped from his mouth. Gaara pulled the man close to him.

"What girl?! Did she have silver hair?!" he loudly asked, fearing the worst.

The owner nodded. "Y-Yes! The man said that he would be at the trash site in the third district of Suna!"

Gaara said nothing more as he disappeared in a swirl of sand, reappearing outside of the store. He jumped into the air and headed towards the third district of Suna.

_Streets_

Gaara could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he raced towards the trash site. A rare downfall of rain which was almost nonexistent in the desert began to fall heavily on the village, as if the gods were crying for Gaara. With every step Gaara took, he began to feel more…he couldn't place a name on his current emotions. He had never felt such fear before! The thought of seeing her dead…he needed to save her…at any cost.

Landing in front of the garbage site, Gaara felt numerous powerful chakra signals, probably Jonin. He looked in front of him and he saw that there was a large pile of garbage, almost two stories high, with about four Jonin sitting around a fire which was lit in front of it. It appeared that they had used an advanced camping technique to keep the fire going in the rain by adding a lot of chakra to it. The bastards were sitting in front of the fire as if they had done nothing wrong! He noticed that he could strangely smell extremely well, and he could see much better in the dark as well. Could clearly see the four men before him, and he could smell the heavy scent of alcohol in the air. Hiding behind a large rock, he used his strange new sense of vision and he tried to find Kairi's silver hair near them…

But he didn't see her. Breathing a sigh of relief, he began walking towards them but stopped suddenly when he spotted a small semblance of silver spread upon the base of the large trash heap.

"Hey, who's out there?" one of the drunk Jonin called out.

The five men near the campfire called out to him in their drunken trance.

"You deaf or something? Hurry up and get out of here before were forced to 'defend' ourselves!" He along with several others broke into laughter.

One of them suddenly stopped as he recognized the boy. Grinning, he yelled out. "Aren't we lucky? It's Gaara! We've been waiting out here to take you to your execution."

Gaara ignored them though as he slowly walked towards the unmoving figure at the bottom of the trash heap. Walking right past the grinning men, he bit his lip in pain and suspense and drew blood.

Kairi, bloody and beaten, lay unnaturally above the trash with her mouth and eyes open and dried tears clinging onto her pale looking face. Her white hair was smudged with remnants of drying blood and her arms had several bruises on them. Her once brilliant purple eyes were open with a permanent, lifeless glaze covering them. With rage, he realized that the expensive dress she had bought earlier was in pieces next to her—the cause of her state showing significantly in it's tattered form. Trying to feel her pulse, he instead received frozen, deathly silence.

"Oh that little girl? Ha, she didn't last long with us. She did put up a good fight though, for her age. She actually disarmed one of us and managed to injure us before we had to take care of her. Maybe she had a strange bloodline limit that activated or something. She didn't have to die, but, the boss_ did _say that we could do whatever we wanted with her!" the man from before laughed cruelly as he took another swig from his wine bottle. "Anyways, our boss wants to meet you so if-"

Wavering, he clenched his fists by his sides as his irises glowed crimson and his pupils became slits. "How...? She was just a child…Not even a ninja…" Laughing inharmoniously, he gripped his face with his hands and looked up into the rain.

"**Humans really are despicable things! You should not be surprised that other humans were able to commit such a sin.**"

"Eh? What are you mumbling there kid?"

Turning slowly, Gaara's wolf-like eyes shone in the night. Bold crimson chakra poured from his body as it covered him with a shroud of hatred and death.

"What the hell is happening-?"

The man didn't finish his sentence as he suddenly found himself without a mouth to talk with. Coincidently, the rest of his head was gone as well. The other men blinked a couple of times as they saw their friend's body slowly fall to the ground. Standing a couple feet away, Gaara held the man's head before crushing it with his bare hands. A spray of blood showered him as he felt his body tremble with rage.

"_**YOU HAVE TRULY ANGERED MY HOST! DEPART TO HELL!" **_

The Jonin screamed as they quickly got up to run away. They hadn't felt this type of evil chakra since the last Suna Jinchuuriki let Okami take control. They didn't get far though as lightening fast sand enwrapped all of them. Closing two of his fist, two Jonin exploded into blood and sand. Gaara held up his other hand and-

"WAIT! WAIT!" Despite being choked, the remaining Jonin managed to get a couple of words out.

"The one who told us to do this was the Kazekage! He was the one that gave us the orders! We're innocent! I'm innocent! I was just following orders!" The man's voice bordered madness as he struggled against Gaara's grip.

"_**His father did this to him?" **_His grip of sand lessened somewhat as the man sighed in relief.

"Yes, he's waiting for you at warehouse up ahead!"

Gaara's red eyes narrowed as he dropped the man from his sand prison.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Kissing the boy's feet, the Jonin savored the feeling of life.

Turning towards the trash heap, Gaara looked at Kairi's body as he spoke softly. "**You will receive a proper burial after this is all over...**" With that, he lifted her body with his sand far away from the trash site and he walked towards the outer edge of the trash area and towards the warehouse. The Jonin tried to stand up, but he dropped to his knees as he saw that all of his friends had been cruelly crushed by the sand. The demon hadn't used quite the necessary force for a quick and clean kill; bones, tissue, eyes, hair and organs lay in a bloody mess all around him. But he had survived! He would-

Gaara continued walking as the entire area of trash began to sink into the ground in a _massive_ whirlpool of sand. _**"Lay forever in my prison of sand. Father… I'M COMING FOR YOU!"**_

_Warehouse_

Orochimaru laughed evilly as the Kazekage fell dead before him. Even the Kazekage couldn't defeat him and his partner with their newly obtained powers!

"Lord Orochimaru," Kimimaro said, appearing next to the Sannin. "I sense a powerful and evil chakra heading our way. What should we do?"

Orochimaru sinisterly grinned and responded,

"Let's be polite and stay to greet whoever is coming! I have the feeling that even if we had not come here the Kazekage would have been slain…"

The doors burst open and an evil chakra filled the room as Gaara, cloaked in red chakra, entered.

To be continued...

_End_

Long chapter! But those are good, right?

Sorry for the blood and gore in the end of the chapter, but it was necessary to describe what Gaara had to go through. Kairi died! I'm sad too, and I'm the author!

Next chapter will take place in Konoha in the beginning of the third year of the Academy. The little scene with Naruto in the middle of the 'Gaara' part of the chapter when Naruto was twelve was a little glimpse of the future Naruto.

There were no important battle scenes in this chapter, so everything was rushed because I wanted to fit this all into one chapter!

Thank you for reading! Please review! I want to know if it is okay that I lowered the power levels and I want to know what everyone thinks of my story! Thank you for all who have reviewed!

Rena, we will find out the complete story of how Obito got his other eye in later chapters!

The other day, I had to change a lot of key points in my outline of the story. I was sitting down and doing my homework, when suddenly, something like a vision came to me and in a burst of imagination I saw how the rest of the story was going to end. A lot of key points were changed, but what I envisioned was _intense_! Just wait until Naruto and his group is finished with the Chunin Exams!

I have an Omake that I want to write, but I'll save it for next chapter because I don't want to ruin the mood.

Thank you once more! Power levels will be listed next chapter, because we didn't see that much of Naruto this chapter. See you all next time!

-williams5505


	7. Into the Mist

The 8 Tail's Jinchuuriki: Just because someone has higher stats doesn't make them automatically win the battle. For example: Neji and Naruto in the Chunin Exams. Neji, portrayed by Masashi Kishimoto, had higher stats and better techniques than Naruto did, but in the end Naruto still won. In my story, Naruto can perform better techniques that Sasuke, and has higher overall skills, but in the match against him and Sasuke he lost because Sasuke could counter his attacks. Not only that, but _fire _beats _wind_, making many of Naruto's ninjutsu dangerous to use.

Rena: Pain _will _be second in command. This chapter is going back the third year of the Academy for Naruto and his friends. Thanks for the review!

anotamous: Yes, the Orochimaru created the Sound Village under the orders of the Leader. And thanks for the tips.

Kaja' Rang: I'm glad you noticed that. I made sure to add that scene with Naruto and Hinata on the observatory last chapter just so I could address the issue. Read on and be satisfied.

Makito Namikaze: Yes. Just like when in the anime when Sasuke could predict Naruto's moves when fighting in the Valley of the End. Upon unlocking the third level (in the anime), Sasuke could read and predict the movements. Remember: Sasuke, in my story, only has two tomes as of now. But, because he has the legendary eyes, his level two Sharingan is on par with a normal level three Sharingan.

Zzz: The genjutsu that Naruto uses _is _a high costing chakra technique. And, this _is_ pretty early on in Naruto's life, but then again, he cannot master the technique yet. Also, his bloodline allows him to work with chakra better. Thanks for warning me about the power levels. As for the shunshin technique…I think it's a little too late to go back on what I wrote now. What you say makes sense, though. Regarding the Rasenshuriken, Naruto can only use it once, as I said before. Why? Because he hasn't truly mastered it. You are correct by saying it would do damage top his own body as well. Because he hasn't mastered it, he cannot create it by himself and if he were to use it, it would damage the chakra coils in his arms. I laughed when you said that the technique would also be dangerously close to his head. This is true, because he is so young and hasn't developed muscles yet, let alone arm span. Naruto won't be using that technique any time soon. I have a question for you though. When I read your reviews, I learn a lot and they all make sense. You complimented my last chapter and said it was more believable, but I am curious as to if you _like _my chapters! I'm interested to know if you chuckled or smiled at the funny parts, enjoyed the fluffy parts, or became sad at the tragic parts. It seems like you are a teacher, who merely comments on my grammar but never says whether or not he or she actually enjoyed reading the paper. You should make a fanfiction account. You would excel in being a beta.

Dan01: Amen! I'd give you a fist-pound and a bro-hug if I could see you. But know this; I am not a pushover author who will change the main pairings of a story if someone asks. Power levels are not on the same level, and I changed them to make the story seem more…realistic. But I do want the majority of my readers to enjoy my fanfic. I am not writing this story because I want to get the ideas out of my head, or because I am curious as to how people would find it. No, I am writing this story because I envision great ideas and scenes and I want others to enjoy and see the same that I see. I started writing this story in hopes that at least _one _person would nod their head and like what was happening. Thanks for your input.

Lady Temptress: Naruto is no super God, as I tried to portray by Sasuke beating him last chapter. There are a lot of strong people out in the world who will want Naruto dead, and he will have to become a lot stronger if he wants to be on their level. But…you did review chapter four, and I didn't change any power levels until chapter six…

Fairy: **Whenever people take their time to review my story and ask questions, I respond by putting however much of an answer I can give in the next chapter.** However, we won't see Gaara again until Naruto becomes twelve, which will be in several chapters. So you can't find out until then, sorry. Sub-Zero however was not killed by anyone; he was merely outranked by Pain. Sub-Zero will become third-in-command by the time Naruto becomes twelve. If it helps, I will try to show how Nagato reaches that position in following chapters. Kisame was successfully assassinated by Obito and Sub-Zero, however. And by the way, Nagato is Pain! He goes by that name ever since the traumatic events that happened to him causing him to leave Konoha. Thanks!

Monkey Ninja: You are right; I don't know how I could have missed that! **I have changed the ages of the Legendary Three so that they are all 19, with Itachi being 18**, **in the beginning of the chapter.** Thanks a lot for pointing that out!

OnGuard: I don't think that I overpowered the Sharingan that Sasuke has. In his first real fight with Naruto in the anime, he was getting pretty beat up by Naruto using the fox's chakra. But, the moment he got his third-level-Sharingan, the tables _instantly _turned. Sasuke could see and predict all of Naruto's movements, and he became faster and stronger, using his techniques easier. Here Naruto was whooping Sasuke's butt, but then all of as sudden Sasuke grew so much stronger! That's what Masashi did in the anime and manga, and I did it in my story as well. Remember though that I said because of Sasuke having the legendary Sharingan, his second level Sharingan is on par with the normal third level Sharingan! This may seem a lot better, but the only way for Sasuke to upgrade his eyes is to use the Kagai Mangekyou, which he doesn't really know how to yet, and to defeat it in battle afterwards. Also, I did not mistake Gaara's demon. I stated in an earlier chapter that I would be changing some demons, for no important reason in specific besides that we do not know all of the demons and there are cooler animals than some portrayed. As for killing Kairi…I really have a soft spot for her character as well, but such is fate. I'm sorry that you didn't like the last chapter, but hopeful this one will be better!

Important Notice! As Monkey Ninja pointed out, I got some ages mixed up in the first chapter. So, starting from chapter one, Naruto remains seven-years-old, but Nagato and Konan are 19, and Itachi is 18! Every other age remains, I believe. Naruto's age now will not be changed.

This chapter takes place at the start of the third year of the Academy!

Let's Begin!

The Second Born

Chapter 7: Into the Mist

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_Konoha, Year Three of the Academy_

The morning was beautiful in Konoha and it was the perfect atmosphere for learning. Our four friends are currently sitting in the back of the Academy, bored out of their minds as Iruka reviewed the current lessons of when you should throw kunai in a battle.

Ten-year-old Sasuke was currently leaning back in his chair, reading Make-Out-Paradise, book four. This was the last book of the series, and then he would be done. Kakashi-sensei had told him that he would give him the more…adult version of the series, Icha Icha Paradise when he finished the Make-Out-Paradise series first. Sasuke would also have to be at least twelve. He couldn't wait to learn even _more _about girls! He grinned as he started the first chapter of the book. The book covered everything complicated that could possibly be in a relationship. This chapter was titled, _Compliments_

_It's all about the right compliments! In order to get the girl, you have to be able to throw up the most beautiful compliments that she could possibly imagine!_

Sasuke turned to Naruto who was sitting on his left, currently chatting with Hinata.

"Oy, Hinata! I'm glad you're still wearing that necklace! It really does match your pearly eyes!" he complimented, causing the shy girl to blush.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he continued to read. _That came natural to Naruto…_

Sai, sitting on Sasuke's right, began to hum to himself as he seemed to be the only one paying attention to Iruka's lesson. He looked at Sasuke and he seethed in anger as Sasuke tried to be so cool and hip by not paying attention to the teacher. How un-youthful!

"…and _that _is why you should throw a kunai whilst battling a foe. I hope you all took notes on this; we have a test coming up this Thursday! Shikamaru, wake up!!" Iruka finished, yelling at the boy who was currently trying to sleep in the middle of the classroom.

________________________________________________________________________

_Lunch _

Naruto and his friends were now walking to his house to eat their lunches. The group consisted of his three best friends, Sasuke, Hinata and Sai, and his classmate friends Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, Kiba and Ino. The nine students usually did go and eat out together, and they all enjoyed the experience. Ino was chattering away at Shikamaru and Chouji surprisingly because she figured out last year that Sasuke in fact _wasn't _listening to whatever she would say!

Shino was coolly walking in the back of the group, happy to be having lunch with his friends. Kiba walked next to him and the two kids began conversing about Kiba's new puppy, Akamaru.

Sai was currently making a fuss about how Sasuke was trying to act all cool in front of everybody. Naruto and Hinata watched in amusement as the daily quarrel initiated.

"Why do you have to read that book all the time?!" Sai began to ask. "Clearly looking at the beautiful skies and talking with your friends would be more exciting!"

Sasuke ignored the remark and didn't speak until about fifteen seconds later.

"Hey Naruto, do we still have any pork left in the fridge or did you eat the rest?" he asked his brother, completely changing the subject.

"…no, I think there's still is some left, unless Hinata ate some. Hinata-chan, did you eat anything from our fridge?" Naruto asked.

The dark blue-haired girl shook her head.

"No, I haven't." she replied

Sasuke grinned as he returned to his book, further pissing off Sai.

"Great! I guess I'm having that for lunch then!"

Sai walked by himself muttering things about un-youthfulness and 'being so cool'.

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's Kitchen_

"You can do it, Naruto! You almost got him!" Ino screamed as she cheered for him from the sidelines.

Everybody was crowded around the large kitchen table. Naruto was currently facing off Shikamaru… in a duel of shogi. Naruto was known to be the only one who was ever close to beating Shikamaru in the strategic board game. Shikamaru became a legend in the class because Naruto, against the Nara boy's will, constantly bragged about how smart Shikamaru actually was, even saying that his I.Q. was incredible. Beating him in a game of Shogi was unheard of.

But, Naruto's classmates had faith in their blonde friend and they believed that one day Naruto would win. And when he did…

…it doesn't matter! That fact that Shikamaru would lose would be amazing!

The current game was close, and both combatants were down to their last pieces. Naruto frowned behind his mask as he concluded that his current chances of beating the genius were slim.

Shikamaru frowned as well as he thought about how close Naruto was always getting to beating him at Shogi. He wondered if _he _would lose interest in the game if _he _was the one always losing…

Naruto let out a deep sigh and moved his king to the right, in hopes of prolonging its life.

Shikamaru looked at the board and smirked as he used his one piece to take out Naruto's remaining pieces as well as his king all in one move.

The cheering of the crowd fell silent as Naruto's masked face took on a look of shock at his violently cleared off the board.

"Kuso!" he screamed in fake aggravation, knocking over Shikamaru's king with his hand and roughly standing up and knocking over his chair. Everybody, including Sasuke began to laugh as Naruto made a scene.

"You know what?! I challenge you to a fight…" he screamed, raising his hand to point at Shikamaru. Suddenly, he turned around behind him and pointed at the unexpected girl behind him.

"…Hinata!"

He charged at the girl and tackled her, knocking her over to the ground with himself on top of her. He then mercilessly began tickling her on her sides and neck, causing the young Hyuuga to burst out laughing and pleading for him to cease.

Sasuke muttered something about flirting and everybody else laughed as they watched the battle beneath them.

Finally, after Naruto felt he had enough, he got off of Hinata and helped the nearly breathless yet blushing and smiling girl up.

"You're lucky that Hinata was there to save you, Shikamaru!" he exclaimed as they all began to walk back to class.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Streets of Konoha, Saturday Afternoon_

Hinata looked down to the ground in sadness as she walked to Naruto's house to have lunch with him and Sasuke, as well as Sai. She had been attending a boring Hyuuga meeting that had been required that morning and now she went to meet up with her friends. She was wearing a tank-top, different than the one Kakashi got her because she grew out of it. It was very similar in design with several differences; two tank-tops on top of each other (a white tank-top on top of a blue one) and a light blue short skirt comfortable enough for the heat.

Hinata sighed once more as she struggled with an internal debate. She was so into it that she didn't even pay attention to where she was going. But, she had gone over to Naruto's house every day for so long that her feet automatically led her there. Unsurprisingly, her thoughts were currently about Naruto.

"_Hinata-chan, why…why do you blush a lot when you are around me?" _he had asked her.

She had been unable to respond. Why? Why couldn't she tell him how she feels?!

_There will be a decisive moment in your life, Hinata, which will decide whether or not you belong with Naruto._

Was that her decisive moment?! Did she not belong to Naruto?!

She frowned as she disciplined herself for her weakness and shyness. Naruto…Naruto was courageous, amazing and unique. She was just…Hinata. No _strong _or _powerful_ traits came out of her name. If Naruto was so special…doesn't he deserve someone who is just as good as he is?

Was she not good enough for Naruto?

This thought had been plaguing her ever since she had been unable to respond to him on top of the astral observatory that one afternoon. Was she not-?

"Hey, watch where you're going!" a villager shouted down to her after she accidentally ran into him.

"G-Gomen," Hinata replied, continuing forward after bumping into him. Shortly after, she returned to her original thoughts.

_Naruto deserves someone who is bold, just like he is! Naruto deserves someone who is courageous like he his! He deserves someone…someone who loves him…_

She was not bold, nor was she courageous. She was not able to tell him that she loved him. Maybe…maybe…

Maybe she _didn't_ love him.

How could she?! She didn't even truly understand what true love is! Whenever she sees the classroom girls fawn over Naruto and proclaim that they love him, she is annoyed and claims that they don't really love him and they only have annoying school-girl crushes. They love him from afar and they themselves know that they don't really have a chance with Naruto, because Naruto doesn't like them. To them, Naruto and Sasuke are just ideals that they pointlessly chase after.

What makes her different from those school girls?

She could never really tell Naruto her feelings for him. Does that mean that her feelings aren't sincere? She loves Naruto from afar; does she merely have a school-girl crush on Naruto as well?

Hinata sighed again as she avoided colliding with another villager. She would need some time to think on this. Maybe Naruto was _just _her friend, and would always be _just _her friend. Maybe she wouldn't-

"Hey! It's Hinata!" she heard someone shout from down the street.

She turned to her left and ironically saw a group of school-girl classmates her age chattering together, with Ino as their ringleader. The group of giggling girls walked over to Hinata and crowded around her.

"Ano…what is it?" Hinata curiously asked, looking around worriedly at the girls surrounding her.

Ino chuckled and replied,

"I'm glad we ran into you Hinata! We were just talking about seeing underneath Naruto's and Sasuke's masks! You're like… their best friends!" Ino said, causing Hinata to frown at merely being called Naruto's friend. Maybe she was just a-

"You've gotta have seen under their masks!" the peppy blonde continued.

Hinata sighed to herself. Another attempt for the girls to see underneath her friends masks. She couldn't blame them though; she wanted to see Naruto's whole face just as well…

"I-I've seen both of their faces before," she truthfully responded. When she first met Sasuke and Naruto, they hadn't started wearing masks until Naruto's birthday, and then Sasuke's birthday.

The girls screamed and squealed in delight.

"What did they look like?!?!" one of them shouted out.

Hinata frowned and shook her head.

"I-It's kind of hard to describe with words…"

"Well, are they even more handsome without their masks on?!?!"

Hinata sighed and nodded her head while fighting down a blush, remembering kissing Naruto without his mask on.

The girls squealed again.

"Now it's decided!" Ino said, pumping her fist into the air. "By the end of the day, we're gonna see Naruto and Sasuke without their masks on!"

Everybody cheered and they began devising up plans. Hinata gave a small smile to herself as she thought that it was a fruitless effort. _She _had tried and failed to see her friends without their masks on. She followed the girls to the Namikaze Compound (which all of them unsurprisingly knew where it was) as she thought to herself.

_Hmm, I wonder if Sai is gonna start wearing a mask as well…And maybe I should just kindly _ask_ Naruto and Sasuke to take their masks off…_

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's Kitchen_

"Are you sure you want to go out and eat? We _do _have some stuff left over in the fridge." Naruto asked the somewhat suspicious looking girl.

Hinata nodded. The plan (that the other girls had come up with) required her to get the two boys to come out of the sacred and locked compound. Sai, who was hanging out with his friends too, looked curiously at Hinata as he was currently reading a book titled: _Lies: How to say lies and how to detect them._

_Hmm, it seems as if she is somewhat suspicious looking. I should read this book faster and find out!_

Sasuke happened to be reading a similar book, though it was a more…sophisticated version in the form of a story. Book four of the Make-Out series discussed how to tell when a girl was lying or hiding something. Conveniently, it also discussed how to lie _to _girls and get them to believe you.

_Hinata…does seem to be hiding something. I guess I'll just play along for now._

"Hai," Hinata responded to Naruto's previous question.

Naruto nodded and began to walk out of his house with Hinata. _He _hadn't been reading any books on lying and completely believed that everything was normal.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later, Restaurant _

Naruto hummed to himself as he stuck another barbequed piece of meat into his mouth…through his mask. Sasuke did similar. Hinata giggled as she noticed the disappointed faces on all of the hidden (or so they thought) girls that were spying in on them. They had hoped that Naruto and Sasuke would take their masks off when they started eating.

Once they finished the meal, the four friends left the restaurant and began walking down the streets of Konoha, planning what to do next. The stalking girls were doing similar.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

"How are we gonna catch them with their masks off?!" Sakura asked the confused group outside of the restaurant. Ino answered the question with a brilliant idea.

"We just gotta follow them all day! They have to take their masks off eventually, right?" she asked.

Everybody cheered her on as they began to stalk the two boys.

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere_

Naruto and Sasuke were walking together talking about…boy stuff.

"So, how many jutsu do _you _know that will blow things up?!" Naruto asked his best friend excitingly.

Sasuke smirked and put his left hand in his pocket while he put his book away.

"Just about _all _of my jutsu blow things up! I'm so cool!" he said, as if that explained everything. Naruto was jealous.

"Yeah, well when I learn how to use fire jutsus I'll blow even _more _things up than you could ever dream of!!" he proclaimed, pushing Sasuke to the side.

Up on the rooftop of a building nearby, all of the girls in their class where confused about what the two boys were fighting about in the street below. Both of them were now on the ground throwing punches.

"What were they talking about?" Sakura whispered to Ino, curious like all of them.

Instantly, the boys below stopped quarreling and looked up to the building that the girls were hiding on.

With several 'eeps', they crouched down in an attempt to hide.

"Damn you Sakura, you and your big mouth gave us away!" Ino hissed at the pink haired girl.

Down below, Sasuke and Naruto looked up in wonder at the weapons shop before them. There was a large sign hanging down from the roof of the two-story building which read: _It's time to stock up on kunai! Everything is 50% of today!!_

The two boys instantly ran into the shop, eager to spend all of their money.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weapons Shop_

Upon entering the shop, Sasuke and Naruto saw three kids their age testing out different weapons in the store. There was a boy wearing a tight green spandex showing off his well-toned muscles with black hair in the form of a bowl-cut, a girl wearing a pink sleeveless fighting shirt with loose blue pants who had two buns of hair on her head, and…

Sai…

"What are you doing here?!" Naruto asked his other best friend who was testing out weapons with the two kids.

Sai turned to the entrance of the shop where he saw Naruto and Sasuke coming in and he greeted his friends.

"Ah! It's my friends, Naruto and Sasuke! Rock Lee came and showed me that the weapons shop was having a big sale today so we came here to buy some weapons!"

The boy wearing green spandex, who was apparently Rock Lee, nodded his head and introduced himself to the newcomers.

"My name is Rock Lee, the youthful beast of Konoha! I take it that you are the famous Naruto and Sasuke!" he said, formally shaking hands with the two boys. Who didn't know the famous Naruto and Sasuke nowadays? They killed three Jonin and they are still in the Academy!!

Tenten, who was the other girl in the shop, introduced herself as well. She was a little nervous about being around such famous kids.

"Hello! My name is Tenten; my father is the owner of this shop!" she said. "Everything _is _50% off today, and if you two would like, I could give you a tour of all the weapons…"

Naruto and Sasuke nodded gratefully and went through the shop with Lee, Sai and Tenten.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside, Later_

The group of girls stared at the street in disbelief, shocked that they had just lost Naruto and Sasuke who had just walked out of the store. Both of them wearing carrying an _outrageous _amount of explosive tags; both had a box full of them, and they were also carrying other different ninja tools as well.

They had walked down the street, with the girls following from behind, turned the corner…and then they disappeared.

"There's no way that we will be able to track them down and follow them in such a large group," Ino explained, speaking up. "We'll have to stalk them solo. Since we don't have an infinite amount of daylight left, Sakura and I will be the ones who try. Let's go!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Afternoon, Training Grounds, Thirty Minutes Later_

Sakura hid in the bushes as she shadowed the two boys who were currently in the training grounds with their silver-haired sensei, all staring at the KIA stone. Sakura understood that it was possible that each of them had lost someone important, but they were just staring at it! For thirty minutes! They hadn't moved an inch!!

_Wait…there's no way!!_

Sakura darted out of the bushes and ran up to the three males…

Only to find out that there was three realistic looking scarecrows staring at the stone. She had been staring at _scarecrows _the entire time!

_Well… maybe I get to pull down the masks of the scarecrows and see their faces!_

When Sakura tried to pull down the masks of the fake Naruto and Sasuke, she was rewarded with a gigantic explosion of hay, covering the entire area.

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere, Naruto's House, Courtyard_

Naruto laughed as he and Sasuke went through all of the new ninja gear stuff that they had recently spent _a lot _of money on.

"Having fake scarecrow versions of ourselves are sure to be useful if we go on a mission!" Naruto reassured Sasuke. "If we fill them with exploding tags, an enemy who tries to ambush us at camp would be rewarded with a bomb!"

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement and excitement as he stacked an extra ninja pouch that he had bought with explosive tags. They had only put a special jutsu that Tenten's father had taught them on the jutsu-made scarecrows. If a person was to touch their dummies, the scarecrows would all explode in hay!

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

All of the anxious girls chattered excitingly as Ino returned to them after spying on the two boys.

"Well, did you get to see their faces?!" one of them asked.

Ino sighed in a depressed way and shook her head in disappointment. She had lost all hope of seeing behind the masks. Despite how cool and handsome the boys looked, they were just so strange. One second they would be walking down a street and the next they would disappear!

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto House, Astral Observatory, Evening_

Hinata sat with her two best friends on top of the astral observatory looking at the beautiful view of Konoha. The three kids had just had dinner with Kakashi in Naruto's kitchen and now they were relaxing together and enjoying the view. Sai was elsewhere in the village as he had something to attend to.

"Hey Hinata, have you ever been inside the second part of my house?" Naruto asked curiously. All four of the kids were currently sitting on the large porch-swing.

The dark blue haired girl shook her head, causing Naruto to smile.

"Great! Come on, Sasuke, let's show her!"

Naruto jumped off of the porch-swing and ran over to the side of the tower, pushing his hand against one of the railings. Suddenly, a metal zip line pole came out of the tower and led straight to the second part of Naruto's house across the courtyard. A window had opened on the side of the building leading to some sort of bedroom.

"I'll go first!" Naruto shouted out, grabbing the zip line above him. Jumping off the side of the building, he zoomed down over and across the house and courtyard below him until he was seen being flung into the large open window.

After reassurance from Sasuke, Hinata did similar, and grabbed the zip line and began to fly down to the open window.

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's Room_

Upon entering the window, Hinata found herself in a rather large bedroom with Naruto jumping on a large bed made for two. The room was nicely designed and had a home-like feeling to it. Moments later, Sasuke entered the room as well. When the Uchiha in a crimson outfit landed, he began to explain.

"This used to be Nagato's bedroom, but Naruto's uses it now. He liked it the best and he thought it was cool because Nagato experimented with his room a lot, and example being the zip-line that leads to it. I sleep in a guest bedroom down the hall," he said.

Hinata nodded but instead of walking out of the room into the hallway like Naruto and Sasuke were doing she remained standing still, pressing her fingers together.

After turning around, Naruto said,

"Hinata-chan, what's wrong?"

The shy girl stumbled with herself for a moment before she was finally able to get out,

"I-I-I r-really w-want t-to see y-your f-faces f-or once!" she stumbled, slightly blushing in embarrassment.

Ten-years-old Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other for a moment before Naruto responded.

"Well, sure! Why not?"

Reaching both of their hands up, Naruto and Sasuke slowly began to pull their masks down. Both tried not to laugh at the face Hinata was making. It looked almost like she was watching the most important thing in the world happening.

Both the boys pulled down their masks and revealed their faces. Sasuke was giving his trademark smirk (though this was the first time Hinata had ever seen it on his actual face), and Naruto was giving a great big and warm smile, which Hinata hadn't seen in years.

The poor girl couldn't handle to situation and passed out to Naruto's confusion and Sasuke's humorous knowledge.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Naruto's Courtyard, Evening_

Naruto and his three friends sat together with their Jonin sensei as they returned from eating dinner, finished with all of their training for the day. They were also done with the Academy and the homework assigned. Just like yesterday. And, if Naruto could remember, just like months ago when they started the first year of the Academy. Aside from Naruto's and Hinata's pranking missions, they have been having normal days for too long now. Naruto complained to the group as he voiced his opinion.

"Kakashi-sensei, why can't we do something…interesting or fun for once! Every day we go to the Academy, we eat, return to the Academy, we train, we eat, we sleep, and then we repeat the cycle. I want to do something out of the ordinary!"

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement as he gave a 'hn' in response.

Hinata shyly turned to her sensei and waited for his response for she shared somewhat similar thoughts with Naruto.

Sai smiled as he finished his painting and looked at his surroundings and tried to figure out what was going on.

Kakashi laughed.

"Something interesting?" he said, clearly amused. "What's wrong with having an unsurprising year? Would you rather have assassins try and kill you again? Would that be 'interesting'?"

Naruto shook his head as he quickly responded,

"No! I mean interesting…like another fieldtrip like we went on last year! Maybe we could go and visit Gaara again! I wonder what he's up to!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Suna_

Kairi left the group of kids her age who were now playing 'ninja' to find Gaara, who happened to be sitting on a nearby swing with his sand gourd lying next to him.

She approached him in a cheerful manner; she had just had a pretty fun time playing soccer.

"Hey, Gaara!" she greeted, sitting in the swing next to him.

He curiously looked at her.

"You…are finished playing?" he asked, trying to figure out why she would stop so soon. He had been thinking that she would forget about him and continue playing with the kids after an hour!

"Yeah, silly!" she responded with a giggle. "Playing soccer was fun, but it wasn't _that _fun! I also felt kinda bad that you were staying over here not playing…" she finished, looking away from him in embarrassment.

Gaara's nonexistent eyebrows rose above his eyes in shock. _She had…felt _bad_ for me?!?!_

It took several moments before he could respond.

"Very well, you can relax here for a while until we must leave."

Kairi nodded and jumped off the swing.

"You know," she stated in a chiding yet playful manner, "swings were made to be _swung_ on! You're not supposed just sit still on them!" she concluded with a giggle.

Gaara didn't respond and continued to sit still on the swing.

Kairi overdramatically sighed and ran behind Gaara.

"What are you-?"

Kairi pushed on the swing so that Gaara went up a normal amount before coming back down again. When he returned to his initial position, Kairi once more pushed him so that he would go higher.

"See?!" she laughed as she continued to push Gaara. "Isn't this much better than just sitting still?!"

Gaara was amazed at how it felt to go back and forth on a swing. In truth, he never used a swing because he didn't know how to. He never had the time to learn how to use a swing, and he never closely saw anyone else doing it!

Eventually, Kairi got tired and moved out of the way so that Gaara would slow down to a stop. She walked next to Gaara and sat on the other swing and turned to him.

"Now you have to push _me _on the swing!" she claimed, smiling at him.

Gaara fought down a smile that had somehow managed to come up to his face, and called out some sand from his gourd to push Kairi.

________________________________________________________________________

_Konoha_

"No. We won't be visiting Suna anytime soon because their Kazekage is unstable and would probably find an excuse to kill us if we tried. Try again," Kakashi said.

Naruto frowned thoughtfully.

"I don't know where we could go! I just want to get out of our boring routine and do something dangerous or something!"

Kakashi sighed beneath his ever-present mask.

"And what's wrong with having a normal year?! Why do _you _get special privileges to do something exciting, while must other children your age have normal lives!?" he found himself nearly screaming, for absolutely no reason.

Naruto was unfazed.

"Because I'm just _that_ important! If all of our lives where one big story, I would be the main character for sure!"

Sasuke snapped his book shut that he had been reading, the chapter being titled 'framing', and spoke up.

"Kakashi, if you don't take us somewhere cool then I'm gonna tell Anko that you've been peaking on her when she goes to the hot springs."

Kakashi paled as his one visible eye widened.

"You wouldn't! That's a lie!" he claimed, taking a jab at Sasuke's morals.

Sasuke's morals were well defended.

"I would. And because you are a renowned pervert in the village of Konoha, Anko would believe me! What are you gonna do, run up to her and randomly say: 'If anyone asks, I wasn't peaking on you in the hot springs.'?"

Kakashi let his head fall down in defeat.

"Fine! I'll find an excuse to take you four out on a training trip!" he said, realizing that _he _would also be excused from missions. Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad idea…

Naruto cheered, pumping his fist in the air and then swinging Hinata around. When she landed, she fell to the ground in dizziness (or so Naruto thought) and passed out. Sai smiled to himself as he loved the idea of extra training. Sasuke smirked as he congratulated himself for his persuasive skills.

"Tomorrow, meet me by the front of the village by six. I'm leaving now to speak with the Hokage and Iruka. We'll be traveling out of the village, so pack accordingly."

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Morning, Konoha Gates_

Naruto and his friends stood near the gates of Konoha as they waited for their sensei to arrive. They knew that he wouldn't be that late, because the last time Kakashi had shown up for training practice late, Naruto made sure that he would never do it again. Kakashi never would. All of the children

Naruto was dressed in his usual attire: blue sleeveless tunic with white under-armor beneath it which masked his face as well. His two swords were strapped across his back forming an 'X' in their white scabbards. He had yet to master the elemental form of the twin swords. All he could apply to his kenjutsu was _wind _style techniques, as he had yet to master any other element. Naruto was also wearing his loose white pants as well as his sandals.

Sasuke was wearing his crimson version of Naruto's tunic, with black under-armor and black pants. His katana was strapped across his back as well. Both he and Naruto had two extra ninja pouches strapped to their sides which held a large amount of explosive tags as well as other interesting stuff.

Hinata was wearing the same outfit that was described before. Sai was wearing his ROOT training gear outfit.

When Kakashi appeared, he spoke with the two guards at the front of the village before he greeted his students.

"Good morning, guys! We are going to be taking a training trip to a far off village and have all sorts of fun!" he said, uncharacteristically happily.

Naruto asked the obvious question.

"Uh, which village are we going to?" he said, curious like the rest of them.

Kakashi eye-smiled as he responded.

"The Village Hidden in the Mist! I figured that since it's quite far away from Konoha, we'll have a lot of undisturbed training time on the way there. Also, since you kids will be leaving the village anyway after the Chunin Exams, I figured it would be beneficial to know some of the major villages. Is everybody ready? Let's go then!"

"Not without me!" a voice shouted behind everybody.

Anko, equipped with a backpack, came running to the group comically waving her arms back and forth. When she caught up, she quickly began scolding Kakashi.

"You think that you can just leave me in this village to do a bunch of annoying missions while _you _go on an easy-going training mission with the kids?!"

Kakashi winced as he wished he would've left his house a couple of minutes earlier.

"Well, I-I…" he stuttered as he tried to find an excuse before the fearsome snake-woman.

"I'm coming with you, whether or not you like it! Let's go Hinata!" Anko said as she walked forward with the shy Hyuuga.

Kakashi sighed to himself as he left the village with the boys. _She probably didn't even notify the Hokage about her decision. Wouldn't it be funny if she was tagged as a 'missing-nin' by leaving…_

The group departed from Konoha to go on an extremely short noticed trip to the Mist.

________________________________________________________________________ 

_Weeks Later, Unknown Location_

Haku, after walking silently for most of the trip, finally asked what had been bugging her for a long time.

"Zabuza-sensei," she asked the stoic masked man walking beside her, "How is it that we can return to the Land of Water if you were outlawed there? Wouldn't the Mizukage still wish to kill you?"

Zabuza grunted as he continued walking forward.

"The Mizukage that I tried to kill with the rest of the Seven Swordsmen is dead now. Somebody else killed him."

Haku gasped when she heard the news. How was it possible?! How could the man that was so powerful that he could defeat the Seven Swordsmen be killed by just one person?!

Zabuza Momochi was not ashamed that he had failed to kill the Mizukage. No, not when he figured out whom the Kage actually was. Being a mysterious figure, the new Kage of Kiri hadn't revealed his identity to anyone. When the Seven Swordsmen decided to take action, they found out who he was, but it was too late.

Uchiha Madara had been the previous Mizukage, unbeknownst to the rest of the world. The second man to be able to defeat the Kyuubi in battle, second in strength only to the First Hokage, Zabuza was surprised he got away with his life. More than half of the other swordsmen didn't.

Zabuza was even more surprised than Haku when he had first found out that Madara had been killed. Who could have possibly done it?

Upon arriving in the village, Zabuza allowed a wave of nostalgia to pass over him before he turned to his young apprentice and said,

"We have returned to our village. We will stay here from now on in our own apartment while I try to find work someway or another. Acquaint yourself with the village, but meet me in the forests my noon for your training."

Haku smiled as she began exploring the village. She was at her home at last!

________________________________________________________________________­

_Weeks Later, Sea_

Naruto's group was currently out at sea heading to the Land of Water by motor-boat. The boat was rather small, and they all barely had enough room to sit down together; they were all tightly pressed next to each other. While Hinata didn't mind being pushed next to Naruto, the blonde boy never did like sitting down in one place for a long time.

Standing up, Naruto back flipped out of the boat, causing it to rock back and forth rather dangerously, and when he landed on the water quite some distance out, he shouted,

"I'm not gonna waste all of my time sitting on a boat and growing old! Kakashi-sensei, train me!"

Sasuke agreed and he jumped out of the boat as well after snapping his book shut.

"Hell ya! Teach us something cool, or something that makes things explode!" he shouted out enthusiastically, landing next to Naruto.

Hinata nimbly stepped out of the boat and on the water, walking over to her two friends.

Kakashi sighed and snapped his own book shut before jumping out of the boat as well. Anko slowed down the motor of the boat so that it wouldn't leave them all behind.

Upon reaching his students, Kakashi finally said,

"Alright then, let's think of something cool that we can _all_ do. That means no elemental stuff. How about…no never mind. Maybe instead…no, that won't do. But we could…will somebody please wake up Sai!"

Everybody's attention was turned to Sai, who was comfortably sleeping in the boat. Hinata stepped up to the challenge and formed the ram-seal. Without saying anything, a low powered stream of water shout out from in front of her and splashed Sai in the face, effectively waking him up.

Sputtering for a moment, the pale boy quickly sat up while spitting out water, taking in his surroundings.

"Sai lets go already!" Naruto shouted out to him.

Mumbling to himself, Sai stepped out of the boat and walked toward the group, leaving Anko alone. While she observed the training, she quietly thought to herself.

_If we can all walk on water, did we even need to bring a boat? _

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later_

On dry land now, Naruto and the group walked toward the Village Hidden in the Mist after they had departed from their boat. They had been traveling for several days now, and all the while there they had been practicing the two jutsu Kakashi had started teaching them.

"You four plan to leave after the Chunin Exams to go and find Nagato, Itachi and Konan," Kakashi had begun, "so I think that it would be wise for all of you to know jutsus that will make hiding or traveling easier. Some evasive moves, so to say. The two jutsu that I have in mind are both A-rank jutsus used and taught in the ANBU, so I don't expect any of you to learn it any time soon, at least in the next year of two. No, not even you, Naruto," he said, knowing that the blonde boy would try. Sasuke smirked as he imagined himself mastering the jutsus in no time.

The first of the two jutsus Kakashi, with the help of his dear friend Anko, had begun teaching them, was the Universal Assimilation Technique, created by none other than Orochimaru himself. Not only was it considered a great way to avoid barriers and escape from defenses, but it was an attack prevention technique. Using this jutsu, the user can merge with another object and take on its properties to avoid any damage. An example would be to merge into a tree. If the enemy were to punch the tree, you would not take any damage, and you could exit the other side. Another example of using this is to faze through any perimeter defenses, or through a prison. It was an incredible jutsu, and more than several ANBU were unable to master it. Naruto and his friends weren't even close.

The other technique Kakashi was trying to get them to know the basics was the Hiding with Camouflage Technique. It allowed the user to become invisible to the enemy or others by blending in with the environment around him. There are only several in the world who have completely mastered this technique, according to Kakashi, and the Copy Nin wasn't even one of them. A non mastered result would make the person blend in with the background, though his or her image would waver slightly. Naruto and his friends were progressing much better with this technique, with Hinata doing the best so far. The young Hyuuga was at the point where her own image was beginning to fade and become invisible, though she couldn't hold it.

Eventually, the group neared the Mist Village. True to its name, the entire area was covered in mist, and the village seemed to be in the middle of a valley of some sort. Stepping up the edge of the trail, everybody looked down upon what they could see in the village while Kakashi announced,

"Welcome to Kirigakure! Be sure to explore the village in groups, and then lets all meet back here in an hour!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere, Unknown Location_

Haku flipped through her notebooks and newspapers as she caught herself up on the current news around the world. Zabuza had told her to always keep updated with what was going on with the rest of the ninja world, and if she caught anything special, she aught to tell him. He had made her read and memorize key facts in the bingo book, and read through the newspapers. She was like a 'walking fact book', as he had once put it.

Now, Haku was skimming through the most current paper, and the front cover proclaimed:

_Tension between Kumo and Konoha increases! Is the next Shinobi War in sight?!_

Haku ignored this article, having studied all about the subject already, and flipped through more pages, hoping to find something interesting.

When she was done, she turned to her bingo book. Not much had been in the rest of the news. In fact, the only interesting thing worth noticing is that there was an assassination in Konoha. Someone had infiltrated the Leaf Village and killed a Genin by the name of Kabuto Yakushi. Looking him up in the bingo book, she had found that he had no interesting history, besides that he frequently left the village on unknown trips.

Scanning through the newer updates in the bingo book, Haku noticed that Zabuza was still listed as a missing ninja with an unknown location. Sighing in relief, she flipped to the last update in the book, which was on the Copy Nin of Konoha, Kakashi Hatake.

Looking through the stats, Haku, who had already memorized this famous ninja's stats, recognized nothing different. Though further down on page, she noticed something different. It read:

_Kakashi Hatake has recently taken on four apprentices. Naruto Namikaze, survivor of the Namikaze Clan, possessor of the legendary Rinnegan, Sasuke Uchiha, survivor of the Uchiha Clan, possessor of the renowned Sharingan, Hinata Hyuuga, heir to the Hyuuga Clan and possessor of the all-seeing Byakugan, and Sai, a member of Konoha's ROOT. _

_Note- the last time the three doujutsus were teamed together, the Legendary Three formed._

Haku looked on interested and flipped the page.

_The Legendary Three all surprisingly vanished after the massacre of the Uchiha Clan, and are related to the three apprentices of Kakashi Hatake. It is unknown if Konoha is attempting to form another Legendary Three after their first ones betrayed them._

It went on to say little more, providing pictures of Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata, which they were required to have taken once they were put under Kakashi Hatake. It gave their ages, height and weight as well. It also gave a picture of another male labeled 'Sai', though it didn't give any information out on him, aside that he was a ROOT member. There were also no stats on the power levels of any of them, as it was not allowed because they were neither missing nin nor Jonin. However, at the end of the report, it stated that Naruto and Sasuke together killed three Jonin from Kumo that had tried to assassinate them.

Haku eyes widened as she soaked up all the information and prepared to retell what she had learned to Zabuza.

_Interesting,_ she thought to herself as she ran out of her room,_ it seems that these four apprentices are all my age!_

_________________________________________________________________________ _

_Days Later, Outside of Kiri, Night _

A mysterious man, clothed in a black robe with red clouds upon it, strolled casually toward the misty village. A ring on his finger, which read _weapons_, reflected the moonlight off of it as he walked. Before he entered the village, he reflected upon his mission.

He had been assigned to find and kill Sasori, who had refused to join the organization. Any known villain who was powerful enough was invited to join Akatsuki. If they refused, they would be eliminated.

There would be no threats to the Leader's plans.

But, Sasori had refused, and had run away as well. The Dark Lord had sent him, the _weapons _specialist, to dispose of the threat. If he failed to kill Sasori, the Leader would send another invitation to join the organization. He would send his second-in-command, who was currently Sub-Zero, to ask, and if after that Sasori refused, the Dark Lord himself would deal with him. However, none had survived the first assassination attempt anyway.

The robed man shuddered as he thought about having to deal with the Evil King. That would not be a pleasant experience.

As he entered the village, the man thought about how he would have to find Sasori. He had been told by Akatsuki that Sasori was found heading towards Kiri, so here he was, ready to search.

He hoped his search would go uninterrupted and easy, so that he could quickly return to the organization a success.

________________________________________________________________________

_Mist Village, Next Morning_

Naruto yawned as he got off of his sleeping bag on the ground and looked out the window in his room. He, his friends and their sensei were staying at an inn during their stay in the misty village, and he had to share a room with Sasuke and Sai. Hinata and Anko were sharing a room next to them in the hallway, and Kakashi had his own room (to the complaints of many) across the hallway all to himself.

It was early in the morning, and Sasuke and Sai were dead asleep, allowing Naruto to quietly prepare himself for the day without disturbing his friends.

After getting on his tunic and sandals, he exited the room and walked out into the hallway. He was planning to go out in the woods and train more with the jutsus Kakashi had taught them weeks earlier. It frustrated Naruto that he was unable to master either of the jutsus in the legendary times that he did with other jutsu. He wasn't even close! But then again, neither was anyone else. Though, Hinata was improving fast and getting better at the techniques better than any-

A small and quiet noise sounded in the hallway and Naruto quickly turned around to see what it was.

Hinata, looking somewhat tired, quietly stepped out of her room with a training bag strapped around her back. She turned around to walk out of the inn and was surprised to see Naruto standing in front of her.

"Eep!" she quickly muffled, surprised at seeing Naruto this early in the morning. Smiling underneath his mask, the blonde boy walked over to her and asked her what she was doing.

"Why are you up so early, Hinata-chan?" he quietly whispered so that he wouldn't wake anybody up with his loud voice.

"Ano, I just thought that i-it would be a good idea if I would train by myself in the mornings s-so that I can get better at those two tough jutsu," she mumbled back, looking nervously away. "I-I've been doing it ever since he introduced them," she finished, looking up to see what Naruto would say.

Beaming at his friend, Naruto eye-smiled as he motioned her to follow him.

"Really?! That's great! It's no wonder that you're so much better than everyone else at this jutsu! Well I decided to practice more too, so do you think it would be okay if we train together?" he asked her, hoping that she would accept.

Hinata quickly nodded, causing Naruto to cheer before he quickly silenced himself, realizing that everybody else was still sleeping. Together, the two left the inn and went to go practice together.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later That Evening_

Sasuke had woken up that morning without Naruto in his room. He immediately guessed that his best friend was probably out training somewhere. He wasn't surprised at all when he had also found out that Hinata was with him.

_Well, if Naruto and Hinata are going to train more, then I better train even more than they do so that I can get better at these jutsu! There's no way that I'm gonna be the last one to master them!!_

Sasuke had convinced Sai to go out that evening in their free time and train in the nearby woods. Kakashi had insisted that no one could train alone when they were outside of Konoha, in fear that they might get captured or something else bad. Sai had agreed because he wished to master the jutsu just as much as everybody else.

So now, the two boys were in the woods exhausted, training themselves.

"Alright," Sasuke announced, turning to Sai, "let's work on the one were we try to merge with other objects."

Sai nodded and stood up, having fallen over before, and dusted himself off.

"This jutsu is pretty amazing when it is mastered," Sai commented as he gathered his chakra, "Back in ROOT, only a few members know how to use the jutsu. One time I was at an important meeting, and when it was over, one member simply sunk into the ground, disappearing from sight! It was awesome!" he finished.

Sasuke smirked as he imagined himself doing just that to impress everybody else.

"Hn. Then let's get to it! We have to keep on trying to get our fingers to go into a tree!"

Nodding, they both walked up to separate trees and performed the necessary hand-seals for the jutsu. After, they pushed chakra into their fingers and tried to make their fingers go into the tree.

As the day neared its end, Sasuke had only managed to get half the length of his fingers into the tree. Sai had done similar. Each had improved, because before, they had only managed to get their fingertips in. The jutsu was incredibly hard and required perfect chakra control. Only the right amount of chakra could get the users body to merge into another object; nothing else would work.

As Sasuke was preparing to call it a day, he suddenly remembered how Hinata was able to get her entire hand into a tree, which was much more than anyone else. Inspired to work more, he wiped the sweat off of his forehead and prepared the jutsu once more. Sai, upon seeing his friend not quitting, worked harder as well.

________________________________________________________________________

_Forest_

Elsewhere in the forest, Naruto and Hinata were training together again though this time working on the concealment jutsu. This technique was much less harder than the other, and both were tired from working on it all evening.

Collapsing to the ground, Naruto crawled over to the already fallen Hinata who was panting on the ground, sitting against a tree.

"I think it's time to head back to the inn," Naruto gasped out when he finally reached her and sat next to her, panting from depleting so much of his chakra.

Hinata merely moaned as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back at the tree. Eventually, she fell over so that she was leaning on Naruto's shoulder.

Before he said something, he noticed the sudden calmness of her breathing, and he realized that she had fallen asleep on him. Smiling, he thought to himself:

_Well, I guess we could take a quick rest before we head back to the inn._

________________________________________________________________________

_Next Morning_

Naruto woke up to find himself in the middle of a forest, to his surprise. Looking around, he yawned and appreciated what a beautiful morning it was. The birds were chirping, the rising sun shone through the top of the trees, and the fragrance of lilac filled his nostrils as he inhaled the beautiful scent of the morning.

After several minutes, as Naruto began to further wake up, he noticed an unusual pressure on his chest. Opening his eyes and looking down, he was surprised once more to find Hinata lying against his chest. In his shock, he deeply inhaled and his nostrils filled with another sweet scent of lilac, though this time he realized that Hinata was the source. Curious, he leaned his head down further and smelled the young girl's hair, finding out that it was in fact her hair that was letting off the delightful aroma.

_Hmm…I never knew that Hinata smelled so sweet! Her shampoo must be pretty strong; I wonder how the fragrance lasted throughout all of yesterdays train…_

Now it was Hinata's turn to deeply inhale, and when she did, she smiled and snuggled harder into Naruto.

"Hm, Naruto, you smell like ramen…" she mumbled into his chest, causing him to smile.

"I know I eat it a lot, but there's no way that…!" he responded, though he stopped himself when he realized that she was still asleep. Sighing, he leaned back into the tree as he thought about whether or not Kakashi was freaking out. His sensei was always extra concerned about the welfare of his students, and if he wasn't back in time for breakfast…

At the thought of breakfast, Naruto's stomach let out a rather loud growl, hinting at Naruto that its time to fill it up again.

Hinata once more took a deep breath, awakened from the large sound, and slowly opened her eyes, looking up at Naruto. The blonde boy cringed, hoping that Hinata wouldn't scream out or anything, because in all honesty, Naruto could barely touch Hinata outside of training without her squealing.

Surprisingly enough, Hinata merely sighed peacefully and returned to resting her head against Naruto's chest. After several moments of him hysterically grinning behind his pure white mask and her snuggling into him, it finally hit her and she pushed off of him with amazing speed.

"N-Naruto-kun!!" she screamed out when she realized that she wasn't dreaming, scooting away from him on her bottom, blushing like crazy.

Naruto smiled at her and put a hand behind his head.

"Good morning, Hinata-chan! I guess we both fell asleep last night when we were training. I hope Kakashi-sensei won't be too mad at us."

It took another several moments for Hinata to settle down and think about what had happened. She had fallen asleep on Naruto-kun! No wonder she had had such good dreams about him! She could smell the Naruto-Ramen aroma in her sleep! But what would Kakashi sensei do when he found out that they hadn't returned to the inn at night? What would Sai and Sasuke say to make fun of them?

"G-Good morning, Naruto-kun," she eventually said to him, "We should probably g-get back to Kakashi-sensei as soon as-"

Hinata immediately fell silent as Naruto quickly held up a finger of silence to her. Anybody else would have been confused, but Hinata knew how important it was to listen to Naruto when he looked this serious. Other times when Naruto had done this, Kakashi had afterwards appeared out of no where and attacked them. They were supposed to be trained to be prepared for surprise attacks, and Naruto was the best at identifying oncoming danger. The blonde boy had now activated his Rinnegan and was listening intently into the forest.

"Someone is coming," he eventually whispered to Hinata, slowly moving in front of her.

Moments later, Hinata too sensed a strong chakra presence slowly coming towards them, and after recognizing that it wasn't anybody she knew, she silently activated her Byakugan with a hand-seal and searched for where the source was coming from.

True to Naruto's predictions, a visible chakra force began approaching them, and Hinata deactivated her eyes momentarily to see who it was.

A young man no older than twenty with red hair, clothed in a pure black robe, came walking calmly towards them with a calm look on his face.

"It's impressive that you were able to sense me coming. Those eyes…The Rinnegan, they truly live up to what the legends say of them!" he first said, walking closer to the two.

Naruto tensed and formed his fighting stance in front of Hinata, who stepped out to the side next to him forming her stance as well.

"Ah! The all-seeing eyes! The Byakugan truly is a useful tool, is it not?" he asked, coming to a stop about fifteen feet in front of the two.

"What have you come for?" Naruto asked, weary that the man knew of his and Hinata's eyes so quickly.

The red-headed man chuckled, then responded,

"Fear not, I have not come to harm either of you. I merely came to see the Hero with my own eyes."

Naruto dropped out of his fighting stance as he questioned the man, somewhat nervously.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, unsure of how much this man knew.

The red-haired man laughed now before he was able to respond.

"Surely you are not ignorant of your destiny, Naruto Namikaze!" he said back, amusement in his eyes. "Surely you know that the fate of this world lies in your hands, or the back of your right hand, to be specific!"

Naruto sharply inhaled as he frantically thought of what was going on. Unconsciously, he covered the back of his right hand with his other hand. True to this man's words, underneath his Anbu a combat glove was a seal in the form of three triangles, the Triforce. But Naruto had kept it hidden from everybody!! This strange man knew not only his name, but that he had the Triforce and that Naruto would one day have to battle the Evil King!! How did he know this!?!

"N-Naruto-kun, what is this guy talking about?" Hinata asked bewildered at all that was going on now. Why was Naruto freaking out? Why did this guy know Naruto's name in the first place?

The mysterious man turned his attention to Hinata.

"You do not know either? Has he hidden the truth from you?" he asked, curious as to why the girl was surprised. "You, young Hyuuga, who will play a big part in saving the world should surely know your destiny!" he proclaimed. "However, it is strange that your seal is not visible. According to the legends, the all-seeing eye of Kyoshi should be able to be seen on your forehead. Strange…, you must not have awakened the power yet!"

Hinata blinked several times as she was utterly confused as to what this man was telling her. Naruto, on the other hand, was freaking out.

"How do you know all of this!?" Naruto finally asked him, "Who are you?!"

"My name is of no importance right now," the robed man responded, "and I don't have that much time. I merely came here to make sure you two know something before you go on with your lives. However, the third one is not here with you; shouldn't an Uchiha be around you two?" he asked, curious.

Naruto gasped again. This man knew about Sasuke too!

"No matter. Regardless of his presence I will tell you what must be told. I too am against the Dark Lord, and I wish to see him dead. You two, along with the Uchiha, are the key to finally destroying the King. Please listen carefully to my advice now…"

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere in the Forest_

10-year-old Haku walked through the forest in the morning, wanting to pick up special flowers that were meant for herbs. She had been running low on medical ingredients, and it was time to refill her stock. Zabuza had made sure to train her medically and make her study the subject more than being a hunter-nin required, so in case he were to ever get injured, she would be able to heal him.

She hummed happily to herself as she appreciated how beautiful morning it was. The sun was shining ever so beautifully, and the birds were singing their melodious songs, and…

She stopped when she saw something out of place in front of her. Walking quickly forward, she was surprised to find a person lying in the middle of the forest floor face down, seemingly dead. She put her basket down and sprinted forward, hoping for the best and that whoever was hurt would be able to be saved.

When she slid next to the figure and flipped him over, she was surprised to find only a black-haired somewhat pale-looking boy her age. She was about to perform CPR when she realized that he was breathing.

Confused, it took her a moment to conclude that the boy had fallen asleep on the forest floor. She giggled to herself for being so worried over nothing. She decided that she would wake the person up so that he wouldn't get a cold or anything for sleeping outside too long.

She shook the boy a little, saying,

"Come on silly, its time to wake up! You can't just sleep outside all day or you'll get sick!" she chided, smiling to herself.

Sai woke up to find a girl shaking him. Normally he might've freaked out, but if an enemy wanted to kill him, they would've done it while he was sleeping and he wouldn't have woken up at all.

A sat up and rubbed his eyes, letting out a big yawn.

"What happened?" he said to himself. The last thing he remembered was training with Sasuke, who then said he had to go and get a quick drink. Sai and rested at a tree while he waited for Sasuke to come back, and…

"I think you fell asleep out here last night!" Haku told him, now sitting down next to him.

Sai's attention was brought to the brunette sitting next to him. She was the one who had woken him up, right?

"Oh, hi." Sai greeted, remembering his manners. "My name is Sai. Thanks for waking me up, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei is getting pretty worried about me by now."

Haku's eyes widened for a split second. Sai! Whose sensei was Kakashi Hatake! This was the boy she had read about in the bingo book the other day! She was meeting someone in the bingo book! That's awesome!

"Hello, my name is Haku," she calmly said, "I was out here collecting medical flowers when I saw that you were lying asleep on the ground, so I decided to wake you up. What were you doing out here?" she asked, trying to start a conversation.

"I was training to become a stronger ninja," Sai replied, not wanting to give much else information.

Haku smiled at him. "That's great! I think that if your dedicated enough to be training late at night, then you're gonna be a great ninja!" she encouraged.

Sai smiled back. "Thanks! What about you? Are you from this village, training to become a ninja?" he asked, curious about the girl.

Haku thought about her response for a second before she realized that she had no reason to lie.

"Yes, I'm from this village, and I am training to become a ninja. Maybe we could train together sometime!" she offered, curious to see how powerful a student of Kakashi-sensei worthy of being in the bingo book was.

"Sure, I guess it wouldn't hurt," Sai responded after some thought. "But I'm from the Leaf Village, and I won't be staying here for long. I'm only here for a training trip anyways," he said.

Haku smiled at him.

"Great! How about we come here and train together this afternoon or something?" she offered again, hoping he would say yes.

"That's sounds fine. I'm gonna head back to my sensei now, so I'll see you hear later then!" Sai called out as he got up and ran back to the inn.

Haku continued to smile as his figure faded away in the trees.

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere_

Sasuke woke up in the middle of the forest, pissed off. Why the hell was he in the middle of a forest?! He had really pushed himself last night; he should've just went to the inn and gone to sleep. But no, he had to train and avenge his clan name and be stronger than Naruto and such. Damn it all!

Now, he was leaning back against a tree, wondering when he should return to the inn. Kakashi sensei was probably freaking out right now, worried sick about his students. Well, he might as well get back as soon as he could.

Getting up and brushing himself off, he began walking back in what he thought was the direction to the inn.

Minutes later, he felt a strange chakra force coming through the woods. Curious, he jumped up into the trees and activated his level two Sharingan, curious to see what force he was feeling. Spinning around, he scanned the forest with his chakra sensing eyes, hoping to-

"Behind you!" a male voice sounded.

Freaking out, Sasuke leaped out of the tree. Mid-air, he spun around, unconsciously going through a fire-jutsu. When he was fully turned around, a stream of fire burst from his mouth, incinerating the branch he was just standing on, and hopefully the strange man as well.

When he landed, he caught his breath as he searched the tree for his enemy.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of him, laughing loudly.

"Wow! What amazing reflexes!" the man proclaimed, still laughing. When he settled down, he observed Sasuke closer.

"Wow, the Sharingan!" he proclaimed when he saw Sasuke's eyes. "No wonder you were able to move so quickly! But I thought all of the other Uchiha were supposed to be dead…"

Sasuke glared at the man as he observed what he was wearing. The man was clothed in a dark black robe with a high collar and red clouds on it. The person was also wearing a traditional straw hat with paper strips handing down the side of it along with some bells. Strange…

"I looking for someone and I believe that he is in this forest," the man continued, still smiling. Clearly this man had a happy attitude. "The man has red hair and a black robe, I believe, and he goes by the name of Sasori Akasuna, or Sasori of the Red Sand. Have you seen him?" he asked Sasuke.

Sasuke formed his fighting stance. This man was powerful, strong enough to sneak up on Sasuke with insane speeds, and Sasuke had to be careful around him.

"I don't have to tell you anything," Sasuke replied, smirking at him.

The Akatsuki _weapons _specialist sighed as he shook his head.

"Are all the Uchiha this arrogant and annoying? Geez, you're just like Itachi. I can never get a straight answer out of him!"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he sharply inhaled in surprise.

"Y-You know Itachi?!" he yelled out.

The Akatsuki member laughed for a moment.

"Of course I know Itachi! I ate breakfast with Itachi the other day, that's how well I know him!" he claimed, still laughing.

Sasuke snapped out of his daze and formed his fighting stance once more.

"Where is he?! Where is my brother!?!" he demanded, his Sharingan spinning wildly.

The robed Akatsuki stopped grinning and looked at Sasuke in wonder.

"…No way! Itachi has a little brother?! I knew you looked like him! Exactly like him! Oh this is going to be so great! I can see it now:

'_Hey Itachi guess who I saw the other day?' _

'_I honestly couldn't care less, leave me be so I can return to my eternal brooding.'_

'_Well I'm telling you anyway! I saw your little brother, Sasuke!'_

_End of Imagination_

"Wow, that's gonna be great!" the man ended with, grinning madly again.

Sasuke was unfazed.

"Tell me where he is!!" he repeated, ready to attack.

The man finally acknowledged the question.

"Oh, where he is right now? I'm afraid the Leader doesn't allow us to reveal his super secret location and such, so I can't really tell you. But if there's anything you want me to tell to your brother, I can give him a message or something."

Sasuke, seething in anger, dashed forward and pulled out a kunai in preparation to capture the man. He had left his katana at the inn, so a kunai would have to do. Right when he was about to reach the man, he pulled his kunai back to attack, and…

He sensed a flash of chakra with his eyes. Thinking quickly, he covered his body in chakra, and inches away from the enemy,

The man exploded.

Sasuke was blasted away in the raging inferno, flying through the forest until he hit a tree and fell to the ground, moaning in pain.

The mysterious Akatsuki member then appeared in front of him and crouched down to Sasuke's eye level.

"Exploding Shadow Clone jutsu. Do you like it? It's one of my favorites, seeing how I am a fan of explosions. I stole that one from Deidara, a man who you may very well meet in the future. Well, I'm guessing that you don't where Sasori is, but seeing how I'm an expert at tracking, I'm sure I'll find him very soon without your help. Have a nice day and I'll say hi to Itachi for you."

With that, the man disappeared once more.

________________________________________________________________________

_Forest_

"The Dark King has returned once more to claim his throne, and his power is slowly returning," Sasori concluded.

Hinata shook her head in confusion.

"W-What are you talking about?! Who is this Evil King, and what do we have to do with him?" she asked, at a loss during the entire conversation.

"If you don't know now," Sasori responded, "you will find out soon enough. Your three…special powers are needed to defeat the Dark King. Naruto, your Tenrai Rinnegan, Sasuke's Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan, and Hinata, I believe that your Shinsei Byakugan will awaken soon enough when the time calls.

"The King is powerful, and you Naruto need to master all of the elements in order to stand up to him. Only when you master all of the elements and understand the balance of them all will you be able to truly awaken your Rinnegan, which is needed to defeat the King. Please note that your eyes will also allow you to master the sub elements, which is combining two different elements into one special one.

"Also know: You will need to find the Legendary Blade which Gyatso once wielded in order to face the King. Only with the legendary eyes and the Master of all Swords will-

_BOOM!!_

Mid-sentence, a large explosion went off in the forest somewhere behind them. Hinata quickly spun around and used her Byakugan to investigate.

"I-It's Sasuke!" she said when she saw him lying on the ground. "It looks like he was in some sort of fight!"

Naruto cursed to himself as he turned back to Sasori, who was turning and walking away.

"Wait!" he called out, "Where am I going to find the sword?!" he asked.

Sasori laughed to himself.

"That's your problem, not mine. I have to go now; I fear our time together has been cut short. Remember what I said to you today….I'm sure we'll meet-"

"I finally found you!" a voice sounded from above and behind them.

Turning around, Naruto looked up and saw a man in a black robe with red clouds on it standing on a tree, holding a straw hat in his hand. The man had dark hair and a smile on his face.

"It was a lot harder to track you because I was informed that you traveled in Hiruko! But, it looks like I found you now!"

Jumping down, the man walked past Naruto and Hinata until he was about fifteen feet away from Sasori, who was now frowning in displeasure.

"It seems that I can no longer run away from your organization," Sasori said. "I have no choice…but to fight back."

The Akatsuki member laughed.

"Fight back?! Against us?!?! Even if you do defeat me now, the Leader will only send someone more powerful next time! Eventually, you'll have to face the dark man himself! You have no choice but to join us or die!"

"We'll see," Sasori responded, holding up his hands.

Suddenly, Sasuke appeared next to Naruto and Hinata. He looked torn up, and his outfit was slightly burned and torn. When he landed, he reached out, grabbing their arms.

"Jump away, now!" he screamed to them, jumping backwards.

Seconds later, the area exploded as the fight between the two elite ninjas began.

________________________________________________________________________

_Inn_

Back at the inn, Kakashi was enjoying a nice morning with his best friend Anko.

Yeah right.

He was currently lying down on a couch trying to relax while she kept nagging him about how the kids were missing.

"What kind of sensei are you?!" she questioned, throwing a pillow at him, "Your students didn't return last night, and you won't even go and look for them?!?!"

Kakashi yawned and sat up as he smacked the pillow away, stretching his arms.

"Listen, I'll go and look for them, but nothing bad has happened! They probably just passed out from over-training themselves or something. I'm sure if anything bad were to happen, I would know-"

_BOOM!!!_

An explosion went off in the nearby bushes, slightly shaking the inn. Kakashi stumbled off of his couch, and nearby sounds of crashing dishes could be heard from different floors. Anko almost fell over, but she was able to catch herself first.

"What in the world was that?!" she asked as Kakashi stood up.

"I don't know, but it came from the forest in that direction!" he said, pointing out the window. "Let's make sure every one is okay!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Forest_

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata landed on a tree branch a while away, shielded by the large blast. Panting, they all kneeled down as Sasuke began to explain.

"That man in the black robes with red clouds on it," he began, "met with me a while ago in the forest, saying he was searching for a man by the name of Sasori of the Red Sand, which looks like the guy he is fighting right now. We have to go and help him!" Sasuke stated, standing up.

Several other explosions went off in the forest, rocking the trees and wind blasted through.

When Naruto recovered, he retorted,

"No way! Sasori, or whatever that red-haired guy is called, knows a lot about us and he was sharing information about-"

"That doesn't matter!" Sasuke snapped back, clearly angry and anxious. "That guy knows where Itachi is!!"

Naruto and Hinata both froze in shock as they stared back at Sasuke in disbelief.

"And if he knows where Itachi is," Sasuke continued, "then he knows where Nagato and Konan are too!"

Naruto leaned back against the tree trunk as the situation sunk in. Both people who were fighting knew priceless information, but if the man in the red-clouded robes knew were Nagato was, then…then…!

"It doesn't matter!" Hinata surprisingly said, shocking the other two. Her Byakugan was activated and she was looking through the tree trunk. "I'm looking at the way these two are fighting. They are on a _way _different level then us! I don't even think that Kakashi would stand a chance against either one of these two guys!!"

Naruto activated his Rinnegan in an attempt to see the battle that was going on. Suddenly, he came up with an idea and he formed his signature jutsu: the Shadow Clone.

Three clones instantly poofed into existence on other tree branches, all having the same golden Rinnegan glowing in their eyes.

Naruto then reached out his conscience until he was connected with his clones.

Suddenly, a new vision entered his brain as the sight which the other three clones saw became his sight as well.

Hinata and Sasuke nodded as they figured out what Naruto was doing. With this, Naruto would be able to send his clones and get a better view with what was going on in the fight, without risking his health.

The clones nodded as well, and with that, they jumped forward to get a better view of the fight while the three kids thought of what they were going to do.

________________________________________________________________________

_Fight_

Sasori cursed to himself as he dodged another explosive projectile that was sent toward him. The Akatsuki enemy was clearly skilled with a large range of weapons, just as large as Sasori's, and the man was smart enough to not give Sasori enough time to summon and enter his Hiruko puppet.

As he dodged the next explosive thrown at him, Sasori quickly activated one of the seals that were held in a vertical scroll case along his back. The seal, underneath his robe, had the kanji of _water_.

Mid-air, he held out his palms to the Akatsuki enemy and two metal tubes suddenly protruded from them slightly. Pushing forward a surge of chakra, a _powerful_ stream of water burst forth from each hand.

The Akatsuki member foresaw the attack and he was able to dodge the blast. With insane speeds, making him to the normal eye seem like he disappeared, the Akatsuki dashed forward in a perfect shunshin until he was directly in front of Sasori.

Using a kunai he had pulled out, he quickly stabbed Sasori in the middle of his forehead. Right after, he spun to the side and kicked Sasori to the ground, resulting with dust flying up in the air.

All of Naruto's clones, who had been able to witness the extremely short fight, gasped in shock at its quick ending. The man in the red-clouded robes had been so fast that they, even with the Rinnegan activated, couldn't see his movements! What speed!

As the Akatsuki member landed, he smiled to himself as he dusted off his robes.

"You underestimated my speed. You should never have let your guard down, especially when fighting an S-ranked ninja like myself," he stated as he turned around, his job done. Finally! After all of his searching, he could go back to the hideout and relax!

When he was walking away, he suddenly stopped and looked at the kunai in his hand with curiosity and increasing concern.

"Wait, where is the blood?" he asked himself, looking at the small blade. There was no blood on the weapon that he had just stabbed Sasori with, to his surprise. "Shouldn't there-"

"_You _shouldn't have underestimated _me_," Sasori called out as the dust cleared away.

The Akatsuki member's eyes, as well as Naruto's clones' eyes, widened instantly as they looked at the perfect form of Sasori, who didn't even have a mark on his forehead.

Sasori held out his palms again, this time twisting his wrist in a complete circle, and a thin blast of water burst out of his hands once more.

The Akatsuki was able to dodge the blast just in time once again, but this time the water that missed him continued forward in the forest, cutting through trees with amazing sharpness.

Jumping in the air, the Akatsuki threw a scroll in front of him, opening in mid air in a horizontal line. The kanji 'seal' was written on the middle of the scroll. Suddenly, around fifteen katanas appeared in the air, and after a blast of chakra from the member, they all flew at incredible speeds toward Sasori.

Sasori directed his water streams at the oncoming weapons just in time, and all of the katanas split, shattered and were blasted away before they could reach him.

Suddenly, the Akatsuki member disappeared in the middle of the air, using another perfect shushin, and he appeared directly in front of Sasori.

Defending himself, Sasori stopped the water blasts and attempted to hit the Akatsuki away…

But he was too fast, and the enemy ducked under Sasori's swipe, spinning on his feet while pulling out his katana, and before Sasori could defend himself, he thrust the blade into Sasori's abdominal area.

Sasori stood shocked for a moment and the Akatsuki smirked as he stood up. Pulling out the katana, he thrust it once more into the middle of Sasori's chest, just to be safe.

Naruto's clones', in the trees, gasped once more as they witnessed the end of the fight. The robed man with a high collar was just way too fast!

Smirking, the Akatsuki looked at Sasori before he pulled his katana out.

"I expected more of a fight from you, Sasori! The Leader had such great interests in your so called 'powers' which you have yet to display. I guess I'm going to have to disappoint him and report that you weren't anything special," he stated.

"And I didn't even have to show my skills! I had been looking for a great fight, but I didn't even get _close _to going full out! What a shame."

Suddenly, as he tried to pull the katana out, Sasori's hand shot out and took hold of the man's arm.

Eyes widening in shock, the man tried to pull his arm away, but to no avail. Quickly thinking, he used his other hand and punched Sasori hard in the face…

Only for Sasori to turn his head back to the man, unfazed.

"You and your organization know nothing about me, which is why you will die trying to kill me. Hopefully, your leader will send someone stronger and smarter next time."

With that said, a strange sound came from underneath Sasori's robes, and suddenly a cable with blade on the end, resemble some sort of stinger or scorpion tail, came out from behind Sasori's robe, dripping with a purple liquid.

Before the Akatsuki could do anything, it lashed out and struck the man in the heart, instantly killing him.

"You should know that striking a man in his heart is the most…guaranteed way to kill him." Sasori said, the metal cable retracting and returning underneath his robes.

With that said, the Akatsuki member fell to the ground, dead, and Sasori turned his back and began walking away.

Naruto's clones stared in shock at the ending result of the fight, and they quickly dispersed themselves.

On the forest floor, the ring on the Akatsuki's finger glowed brightly for a moment, before dying out, like a spirit that has left the body.

________________________________________________________________________

_Days Later,_ _Unknown Location_

Orochimaru walked down the medieval castle hallway of the Akatsuki hideout, wearing the black robes with red clouds on them. The ring on his right hand, which read _Serpent, _reflected the candle lights which illuminated the corridor.

When he reached the end of the hall, he stopped before the grand doorway of throne room. Taking a deep breath, he pushed one of the doors inward and walked into the large room.

Directly in front of the door was a blood red carpet which led straight to a large throne. A dark and powerful looking man sat on it, smirking at the arrival of his minion. Around the throne in a semi circle were eighteen smaller but elevated thrones. Orochimaru walked down the long red carpet until he reached the large throne. He kneeled down before his superior and said,

"Leader, you have summoned me."

The Evil King grinned darkly as he looked down at the kneeling Sannin.

"Yes I have. Tell me, Orochimaru, did Suna accept the plans to attack Konoha?" he asked.

Orochimaru grinned and stood up.

"Yes, the Kazekage seemed more than willing to!" he said in that evil and smooth sounding voice.

The Leader smiled to himself.

"Good. In several months, you and your partner from now on, who will be _Bone_, will go to Suna and assassinate the Kazekage. Actually, _Bone _should be coming right about now…"

True to his word, the throne doors opened far behind them and Kimimaro, dressed in the Akatsuki robes, walked down and kneeled before the Evil King with the ring labeled _Bone _on his left hand.

"My master, I bring with me troubling news," he said. The Dark Lord raised and eyebrow and waited for the white-haired man to continue.

"Our _Weapons _specialist died in the attempts to kill the one known as Sasori," he said, now standing up next to Orochimaru.

The Evil King grinned. He knew this right when it happened, but he preferred the news to be told to him anyway. He had designed the rings he gave to the Akatsuki members to notify him when the user had died.

"Is that so?" he responded. "There is no need to worry. Were you able to recover his ring undiscovered?"

Kimimaro nodded and tossed the ring in the air to the Leader. Mid-flight, it stopped and hovered in the air as the King stared at it.

A purple chakra that resembled fire cloaked it for a moment, and the metal ring disintegrated into ashes and then into nothingness.

"This Sasori seems to be stronger than I had predicted. I will send my second-in-command, Pain, to go and get him to join our organization. Now, both of you go to Suna and kill the Kazekage! Report back to me using the _Astral Projection_ _Technique_ (Magic Lantern Body Technique) when you have successfully slain him. Dismissed!"

Orochimaru and Kimimaro instantly disappeared from the room.

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere_

Sub-Zero stormed through the castle in search for Nagato, whose name was referred to as Pain now, to deliver the message which the king has sent him.

Sub-Zero had always been the most powerful member in the organization, well, besides Tobi, but recently, Pain had outranked him in a fight. When the teenager had first arrived at Akatsuki, Sub-Zero had been far more powerful than him, but the power of the kid had increased so dramatically! In the fight that would decide who would be second-in-command, Pain had barely managed to beat him, using all of his strength, but in the end he had.

Damn it all!

Word had spread quickly through the organization that Pain was now the strongest member, and Sub-Zero was now the second. If only he had the legendary Ice Blade! Then he would certainly be stronger than Pain!

The Ice Blade is one of the world's legendary blades, equal in power with the other legendaries. Well, except for the Master of all Swords, also known as the Elemental Blade, but the sword was probably a myth and not true. The Ice Blade is the Lin Kuei Clan's pride and joy, their most powerful weapon. However, the first Grandmaster of the Clan, who was said to be the wielder of the blade, hid it, in hopes of preventing any evil from obtaining its power.

But he would find it, and when he did…

Sub-Zero finally reached his destination, and he knocked on the door which was the chambers of Pain.

Opening it, he entered to find Pain, Itachi and Konan all sitting together, apparently speaking about something.

Nagato turned his orange and complete Rinnegan Eyes to Sub-Zero, nearly causing the man to ironically shiver.

"What is it that you want," he called out; slightly agitated that he was interrupted from his conversation.

"The Leader wishes for you to find and recruit Sasori Akasuna. The missing-nin is said to be a puppet master, with power enough to kill one of our own members, Kotaru. Here is the scroll with all of the rest of information you should need."

Tossing a scroll to him, Sub-Zero then turned around and left the room, not bothering to close the door.

Nagato frowned and flicking his wrist, the door shut itself.

Looking at the scroll that was given to him, Nagato said,

"That seems interesting. I can't believe that Kotaru was killed! I wonder when the Leader was going to tell us."

Konan also frowned thoughtfully as she looked at the scroll herself, leaning against Nagato. She was his girlfriend, after all.

Reading through all of it, she was read aloud the basic information that it provided, such as where he was last seen, what he looked like and such.

"Hm, this doesn't really say much about his abilities. Itachi, Sub-Zero said that he was a missing-nin; why don't you look him up in the bingo book?" she offered, smiling at his response already.

Itachi groaned and slowly got up and walked over to one of Nagato's drawers where he pulled out the small book.

Sitting back down, he tiredly flipped through the pages as he searched for Sasori.

After several moments, he suddenly stopped on one page as his eyes widened. Nagato, realizing that Itachi had stopped searching, asked him what he saw.

"I-It's…Sasuke!" he finally said, causing Nagato and Konan to jump up and dash over to him.

Sure enough, Sasuke, along with Naruto and Hinata had their pictures in the bingo book under Kakashi's name, along with another pale looking boy.

"What?! Why on earth would they be in the bingo book already?!" Nagato questioned as he quickly read through the stats.

When he got to the part which said that Naruto and Sasuke killed three Jonin, all three of them fell silently and deadly still as shock passed over them.

"What?!?" Itachi finally shouted out. "Three _Jonin_ tried to kill them?!?!"

Snapping the book shut, they all leaned back as they let the information sink in.

"Not only are they now in the bingo book," Konan said, "But someone has already tried to kill them!!"

Nagato remained silent as he closed his eyes in deep thought. Finally, he ended up saying,

"If they were able to kill three Jonin, just Sasuke and Naruto, then it must mean that Hinata had been injured and their true bloodlines awakened. And then it also means that Naruto would have come in contact with the Kyuubi, and he must now know some of his fate. It also means that Sasuke fought against his Kagai Mangekyou and won."

Itachi let out a sigh of relief as he absorbed the information.

"It looks like our little siblings are growing up pretty fast, huh."

________________________________________________________________________

_Trail, Later_

Orochimaru and Kimimaro walked towards the Mist Village once more, traveling here before going to Suna.

"Orochimaru-sama," Kimimaro asked, "are you going to tell me why we are stopping off here, or should I wait outside the village?" he asked, still loyal to his master. It had been a while, not including when he had been sent to collect Kotaru's ring, since he had been in the village.

"There is a boy," Orochimaru responded, "that I wish to collect. He is here in the Mist Village. He has quite a…interesting ability which I wish to…research more," he said. "You should wait outside while I go and retrieve him. If you sense any trouble. Report to me immediately. I will leave at once."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama. But, might I ask who this boy is?"

"Of course," Orochimaru responded after a slight chuckle. "I am looking for the boy called Suigetsu. You might better know him as Rain's younger brother."

Kimimaro looked at his partner in surprise.

"_Water_ has a younger brother?! Do they have the same abilities?"

"I believe they do, but I'm sure Suigetsu's bloodline limit hasn't evolved as much though. However, I plan to experiment on the child and see if I can duplicate his rather unique talent."

"Hai"

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere_

Zabuza, along with Haku, walked through the Mist Village in search for a particular person. Zabuza noticed that the village was rather in a rush, as the new Mizukage was going to be announced in the next couple of days. He also noticed that his student had been acting rather strange recently. Just the other day, Haku had walked up to him and nearly demanded him to train her harder! It was as if she was so humiliated or beaten in something that she wanted to train harder! Hah!

So after searching for this particular person, Zabuza planned to leave the village for a while and train his student harder than ever before. This would benefit himself too, because if everything went well, Haku would turn out to be a nice body guard for him. Being a sensei sure was troubling, though.

Recently, Zabuza had heard news that Mangetsu, a former member of the Seven Swordsmen, and probably the most powerful to Zabuza's dislike, had actually survived the assassination attempt on Madara. When he had inquired about his whereabouts, he had ended up finding out that Mangetsu, or 'Rain' as he was also called, had left the village for unknown reasons. However, his little brother, Suigetsu, remained in the village.

Suigetsu had been training ever since young to be a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and Zabuza had no doubt that he had the talent to make it. But now that the Swordsmen had disbanded and his brother had left, Zabuza intended to take the boy as his second apprentice.

"Haku," he eventually said to the quiet girl walking next to him, "it's time to make a new friend."

________________________________________________________________________

_Trail_

Naruto and the group were currently leaving the Mist Village, heading back to Konoha. Kakashi had been more than worried when he found out two ninjas had encountered his students in the woods. However, he was relieved to find out that they were generally okay, though Sasuke was rather bruised.

However, what he learned from Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata scared him even more.

First of all, Sasuke had said that the one man in strange clothing told him that he knew Itachi.

Second, the man who met Naruto, Sasori, as they told him, told Naruto that he would one day have to find some sort of sword and then face an 'Evil King' in mortal combat.

What in the world was going on?!

The group was mostly silent, which was unusual, as they walked back to Konoha. Suddenly, Hinata spoke up.

"N-Naruto-kun, do you think anything he said was true?" she finally asked him, having worried about it for a while now.

Naruto sighed as he thought about what he would have to say to her. It took him a while to figure out what was best. He didn't want to tell her that the _Kyuubi_ already told him!! What would she think of him then?!

"…I think that there was some truth in what he said. I don't know anything about the sword, but I think that it's true that we might have to use our powers for good one day. Why else do we have unique powers that no one else has? No one else in any of our clans-"

"I don't have unique powers," Hinata interrupted, sadly looking to the side. Sai looked at her with sympathy. He didn't have any unique powers as well; no funny eye, no outrageous bloodline. He understood what she was feeling now, even to a bigger extent. Naruto never mentioned _him _being needed to defeat any King! He felt like he didn't even belong with this group.

Naruto stopped and looked at Hinata for a second. Everyone else seemed to continue walking to give the two some time together.

"Of course you have unique powers!" Naruto told her, grabbing on her shoulders to try and look her in the eyes. "Didn't you hear Sasori?! He said that you have a special Byakugan! But even if you didn't, it doesn't really matter. I mean, Sai doesn't have a doujutsu but he is gonna come with us after the Chunin Exams too!"

Hinata took a deep breath. She had been worrying a lot this past week, having witnessed a battle and Sasori telling her that Naruto was some sort of Hero that was supposed to battle a Dark Lord, and that she was supposed to help him. It was all confusing, and she was worried about what was all going to happen to them.

But when she looked into Naruto's caring blue eyes, which shone above his perfect white mask, she found that she couldn't feel sad. No, not when she was around Naruto.

She smiled back at him as she nodded. Together, the two caught up with the group as they headed back to their home village.

However, as the group walked by, two mysterious strangers with black robes and straw hats that concealed their faces walked by, heading towards the Mist. One seemed to have long black hair, while the other had grayish white hair. Both walked by without saying anything or lifting their heads up, though Naruto could swear the one man with the black hair was smirking as he walked by. It wouldn't be until days later that Naruto, Sasuke or Hinata would recognize the outfits to be the same they saw on the man who fought Sasori.

________________________________________________________________________

_Unknown Location, Throne Room, Months Later _

Itachi frowned thoughtfully to himself as he, along with the rest of the organization, waited for their master to appear after mentally summoning them. Such meetings were rare in occurrence; the Leader only summoned the entire group when something very important was to happen. The last time they were summoned, it was to announce the death of Kotaru. Many members were shocked; this was the first time someone in the organization had died. Itachi had thought Kotaru to be one of the…better members of Akatsuki. At least he had a sense of humor. Tobi was upset as well because he thought without Kotaru the organization would become more boring and he wouldn't have a prank partner anymore.

Before he could think anymore, the entire room began to rumble. Suddenly, Itachi's elevated throne began moving closer to the two other thrones on the side of him. This was happening to every throne in the room. Then, the ground started shaking even more and with the newfound space, two large circles of dark purple chakra appeared on the circumference of the circle. Suddenly, two more thrones elevated from the spheres, completing the circle. Just like every other throne in the room, these two had seals on the middle of them. One of them said _Hunter_, while the other said _Silent_. Whispering began to go through all of the other members, when suddenly the large throne in the middle ignited in a large purple fire.

When the fire died down, it revealed the Leader sitting down in his throne, and three people surrounding him.

"Today," he announced, "three new members or entering our organization. Sasori Akasuna is replacing our old _Weapons_ specialist. He will now be a part of Akatsuki."

A large and not human looking person with strange pulled back hair and a mask over his face jumped up to his new throne, which seemed to be specially made for his large shape.

"Zetsu will become the new _Hunter _for the organization, and his special abilities will be greatly needed."

A very tall…plant like creature, better described as a man in a Venus Fly Trap plant, who had a black and white face split perfectly in the middle, jumped up to the throne entitled _Hunter_. Zetsu, as well as Sasori were both wearing special Akatsuki outfits designed for their bodies.

"And this is the last member that will be joining Akatsuki."

A normal sized man stood in the middle of all of the thrones, observing every member. He was dressed in a special version of the Akatsuki wardrobe; instead of having a high collar that concealed his lower face, he had a tighter black outfit (still which had red clouds on it) and a black hood which concealed his face. The man also had shorter arm sleeves, and his hands were visible. Several throwing knives could be seen on his side, as well as a katana across his back.

After being announced, the man lifted his head up and looked at all of the members sitting on the elevated thrones. He turned around as he observed every member, though for an unknown reason he stopped for a split second when he passed Sasori's and Pain's thrones. Right after, he disappeared and reappeared on his throne, completely silent.

The Leader continued.

"No more members will be joining our organization. We have my desired amount of twenty members. Together, we will be able to accomplish our goals. Akatsuki will destroy all of the evil forces who are not our allies, and we will then conquer this world. But before we can do that, there are powerful forces out in the world that concern me.

"The Bijuu; nine powerful demons that refused to go to the underworld and accept their banishment. These creatures all have immense power. Our first goal is to research and learn all we can about these creatures, and capture them. I have a special jutsu that will allow us to rob the Bijuu of their power. But to go and search for these demons, I have assigned certain groups for certain jobs. For the groups that won't be searching for Bijuu, I will assign you another job. Here are the teams:

Nagato : Konan

Itachi : Sub-Zero

_Fire _: _Wind_

_Metal Earth _: _Force_

_Nature_ : _Thief_

Orochimaru : Kimimaro

_Thunder_ : _Explosion_

Obito : Sasori

_Salamander _: Rain

_Silent_, you will work alone with your special assignments, and if you need a partner you may choose one.

Zetsu, you will work alone, being the spy and bounty hunter of the organizations. And as you all know, we have our own medic nin in Akatsuki, so if any of you are injured on your assigned missions, you may report to Rin."

Nagato's, Konan's and Itachi's eyes widened when they thought about the first plan of Akatsuki.

_Capture all of the Bijuu?! Naruto!!_

_­­_________________________________________________________________________

_End  
_

Wow, this capture sure took a long time to get out. Writing time was cut short with the end of school finals, summer school, and sports camp and such. I also updated a chapter of my other story as well before this one. I apologize for making any of my readers wait this long, and hopefully the next one will come out sooner now that my sports camps are over.

Well, I didn't plan for much to happen this chapter, other than the group traveling to the Mist to go training. It was rather hard to write, and hopefully the next one will be smoother. Nearing the end of this chapter, it became much more difficult to write, but hopefully it's bearable. I just needed to get this chapter out of the way.

Thank you all who continued on to this chapter! A special thanks goes out to those who review, put me on their alert list, or favorite me. Reviews are always greatly appreciated, even if it's only 'Great Chapter' or a complaint about something. Please put your input on this story, because I am a flexible writer and any concerns/request (example: more Kakashi screen time please!) may be answered in the next chapter.

Please note that any small details that you might have noticed that I added are probably important and they may be crucial to the story later on. Also, any Omake requests will be considered if anyone has some good ideas. (review example: How about an Omake on how Nagato convinced Sasori to join Akatsuki?!) or (What's gonna happen between Orochimaru, Kimimaro and Zabuza regarding getting Suigetsu?!)

Note: An Omake doesn't have to be funny. I can make it a deleted scene or explanation upon request.

I'm gonna list the power levels and end with an Omake. Thank you again!

-williams5505

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Power Levels

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500+**

Characters:

Hinata: **150**

Sasuke: **165 **

Naruto: **175**

Sai: **130 **(Taijutsu training has really been helping him out. He's almost catching up!!)

Haku: **90 **(if you noticed, she got her butt whooped by Sai when they met up to train together. But who knows how powerful she may become after intensely training with Zabuza?)

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Omake: The Painting

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11-year-old Sai sighed happily to himself in his room as he looked at his large canvas before him. True to his own words, he had painted the photo where Hinata and Naruto where kissing. It looked extremely realistic, though his painting was more…intense.

Naruto didn't have a shirt on and his fine toned muscles came out rather nicely. The painting was from left to right. Naruto was lying on his back, and he had his head painted on the right side of the canvas with his feet all the way on the left side. His left had seemed closest to the viewer. With his right hand, Naruto was holding the back of Hinata's head as if he were pushing her head further into the kiss. With his other hand, he was holding her waist.

Hinata had her left hand (not facing the portrait) on Naruto's right cheek, and her right hand was reaching out and holding a light switch. The entire room was dimly and romantically lit, and it seemed as if Hinata was about to turn the lights out on them. This painting would sell for _thousands_! He used an advanced _art_ jutsu that made three exact copies of the portrait, smiling to himself. Now all he had to do was pick out a frame…

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_Weeks Later, Naruto's Birthday, Namikaze House_

"Make a wish!!" the crowd yelled to Naruto as he prepared to blow out his candles. Naruto eagerly nodded his head as he eyed the eleven candles before him.

_I wish…I wish that my friends and I will stay friends forever!_

Naruto deeply inhaled, and channeling his chakra in his mouth, he powerfully exhaled, causing a strong gust of wind to exit his mouth, just high enough above the cake so that the candles would blow out, but low enough to send Kakashi flying into a wall.

Kakashi, who was coincidently standing behind the cake, was sent flying into the back wall, not before a picture was taken of course.

Sasuke, who had perfectly timed the picture, caught the blast right when it hit Kakashi. It would be another amazing picture that Sasuke had taken. Hm, maybe he should aim to be a professional photographer…

Everybody laughed as they started to eat the delicious cake, courtesy of Hinata's cooking, together, enjoying the day.

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_Later, Night_

After everyone had given Naruto their presents and left his compound, it was just him and his three best friends, with their sensei, in his house. Sai hadn't given Naruto his present yet, saying that it was a surprise and that he would find it in his room.

"Come on, tell me what it is!" Naruto urged him as they all traveled across the courtyard to Naruto's room.

"Nope, I can't tell. You're just gonna have to wait and see for yourself!" Sai responded, smiling.

Naruto groaned happily as he imagined all the cool things that Sai could have put in his room. Maybe he got a new bed or something! Or a TV in his room! Or maybe there was some sort of an ultra cool jutsu scroll that was waiting in his room!! Oh, he couldn't wait!!

Upon entering his room together, everyone fell silent as they stared at Naruto's bedroom.

Right next to Naruto's bed on the side wall was the large painting of Hinata kissing him.

Hinata immediately turned Sharingan-red as she looked at the picture which had to be inspired from the hospital.

_H-H-H-Ho-How did t-they find out about that?!?!?!_

Naruto, underneath his ever-present white mask, blushed slightly too as he looked at the large picture.

"Wow, this picture is…great! I mean look at the detail!" he explained, happy that such a piece of art was hung in his bedroom. "But why did you draw…me and Hinata kissing?" he curiously asked turning to his friends.

Sai scratched the back of his head nervously.

"I don't know, I just thought that it would make a good picture I guess."

Sasuke, who had been trying to hold his breath all this time in order not to burst out laughing, passed out and fell to the ground. Kakashi, after years of working in the Anbu, was able to keep a straight poker face.

Naruto walked over and looked even closer to the picture.

"Wow, this is incredibly detailed. But, uh, Sai?" he asked, very curious, "How did you know that I have six whisker marks on my face? I don't remember you ever seeing my face!"

Sai smiled his usual smile as he desperately tried to come up with an excuse.

"Uh…You mean you do have whisker marks on your face?!" he asked, faking astonishment. "I completely guessed, thinking that you might, and it turns out I was right! Wow, that's pretty lucky I guess!"

Kakashi then passed out on the ground from trying not to laugh so hard.

Naruto then turned to Hinata, slightly embarrassed.

"What do you think about the picture, Hinata?" he asked her. "It kinda reminds me of that time in the hospital, doesn't it?"

Now, Hinata finally passed out on the ground as she could resist it no longer.

Naruto and Sai stood there kind of awkwardly as everyone but them was passed out on the ground.

"Uh…happy birthday Naruto!"

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_End of Omake_


	8. A Treaty of Peace: Part 1

Next chapter! The third year of the Academy is over and Naruto and his friends have one year left until they become Genin (unless they surprisingly fail the Genin test). This year starts with the aftermath of Kotaru's (_weapons specialist) _death and the fourth year of the Academy for Naruto. Also, two OCs will be introduced in the beginning, so don't be confused.

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Kingswriter: Well, unless I state otherwise, the Omake does apply to the real story as well. It just happened after Naruto and his friends got back to the village, so I decided to make it an Omake. Thanks for the review.

erokitsune83: That makes sense. Naruto shouldn't be that dense when it comes to making friends, but Nagato never taught Naruto about romantics and such, seeing as he was somehow dense as well. However, I will take what you said into account the next time I see something going on between Naruto and Hinata. (Which is what you hopefully meant) Thanks for the input!

anotamous: I don't think last chapter started as a flashback. I actually made sure to write that it would start at the beginning of the third year. But if you're talking about something else, I'm not sure. Nothing in the last chapter (I think) was a flashback; chapter six was just one year in the future because I wanted to show how everything was going with Gaara. So I thought it would be interesting that we all would know what was happening with Naruto during chapter six. As for Sasori's fight, ya, I meant it to be short. It only takes one hit of Sasori's poison to be down and out, and Akatsuki didn't know that Sasori was an actual puppet! Kotaru thought that he caught Sasori off-guard and that he wouldn't be able to summon a puppet, and I myself would be confused if I stabbed someone in the head and stomach and they didn't die. Thanks for the review! As for your Omake idea, I don't think I can imagine Akatsuki deciding what outfit to wear while making it interesting. The Leader chose it himself, after all.

Rena: Thanks for another review! I look forward to your reviews every time after I finish a chapter. And if someone gives me a bad review or tells me that this story is pathetic, I'm usually waiting for you to make me feel better again! Last chapter was to introduce new characters, yes, and to show what happened with Sasori and Akatsuki. In chapter six I said that their _weapons_ specialist would die, so we needed to show how. I also don't want to skip any years of Naruto's important childhood. Sasori is not as good as a guy as you would think, but you'll find that out further on in the story.

The 8 Tail's Jinchuuriki: Thanks for the idea. I actually did change the summary of the story, so I hope it's better now!

Sashu: Thanks!

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Let's Begin!

**This chapter starts in a minor flashback of sorts. It takes place before Sasori joined the Akatsuki.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 8: A Treaty of Peace, Part 1

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_Trail_

As Sasori walked away from the Mist Village, he allowed himself to smirk. He had escaped the clutches of Akatsuki once more. But what did it matter? Soon, Akatsuki would send another and more powerful member who would be able to subdue him. Just like Kotaru had told him, he would either join Akatsuki, or die.

"Sasori-sensei, where will we be traveling now?"

Sasori turned to his young apprentice who was walking beside him. The twelve-year-old boy had pure black hair that spiked up on his head, and was wearing a black robe similar to the one Sasori was wearing.

"To the Village Hidden in the Clouds. They are about to elect a new Raikage and I wish to go and see him while I have time. It always pays to know how powerful each village leader is. As you know, we will not be able to avoid Akatsuki much longer and I assume that the next member we meet will be the one that makes us join."

Koutetsu nodded as he pulled his hood over his head, just like Sasori. ________________________________________________________________________

_Village Hidden in the Clouds_

Up in the northern mountains, in the village carefully constructed into the very gigantic rocks themselves, further up and onto a training ground is where an eleven-year-old boy was found punching a log at the most peculiar time.

Almost furiously, the boy continued to rotate between punching and kicking the unfortunate tree stump, never ceasing to push himself harder. It wasn't until he heard someone approaching him did he began to slow down his pace.

"Roku-sama!" a dark-skinned Chunin messenger shouted out to him while running toward him. "Roku-sama!"

The straight silver-haired calm and collected boy turned his head to look at the messenger sent to retrieve him. He had expected someone to come up and find him eventually; after all, it was expected that the heir of the Korochi Clan would attend-

"Roku-sama!" the Chunin cried out once more as he neared the boy. He took a moment to kneel over and catch his breath. "You have to head down to the Raikage's Tower! The ceremony will begin in minutes!! Why on earth would you be training at a time like this?!"

Roku sighed as he turned back to his stump.

"Relax, I'm gonna attend," he responded, beginning once more to kick the log.

The Chunin messenger sweat dropped as he pleaded once more the Roku to come with him. The boy wasn't even dressed properly; he was wearing his usual training attire: a tight black shirt revealing his muscular form, and loose white pants with wooden ninja sandals.

"You have to leave now! If you were to sprint to the Village now you still might be able to catch the beginning!"

Roku, in the middle of performing a roundhouse kick, slammed his foot into the ground, making a pillar of earth to shoot up from underneath the log, causing the wooden object to fly high into the air. While it was soaring up, he flew through several hand-seals, ending on the tiger seal.

_Fire Style: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!_

Around twenty small fireballs erupted from Roku's mouth, traveling upward towards the log at an impressive speed. The log was burned and beaten in the air, resulting in ashes as it flew onwards in the wind, never returning back to earth.

_Earth Style: Earth Swim Jutsu!_

Before the Chunin messenger could comment or say something else, Roku held up the half-tiger seal with his right hand before sinking into the earth, disappearing from sight.

The Chunin sighed as he realized his own situation.

"Great, now _I'm_ gonna end up being late…"

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_Raikage Tower_

Despite traveling quickly through the mountain using his technique, Roku still ended up being a little late to the election of the new Kage. Apparently, as Roku entered the area where his Clan was watching, the new leader had already been introduced as the entire village was cheering. Because the Kage tower was built into the side of a mountain, as well as all the other establishments in Kumo, the villagers had to watch from lower wooden platforms. Citizens, who normally lived on lower areas of the mountain which were flatter, were escorted to special areas to watch the ceremony.

As the cheering died down, Roku tapped his parents' shoulders so that they knew he had arrived.

"Oh Roku, dear," his mother said, "wherever have you been?"

Roku sighed at the tone of his mother's voice. His parents were head of the richest clan in Kumo, probably the richest clan in the world. They lived in a gigantic house, more like a palace, and he had been spoiled all of his life. Or at least they tried to spoil him. Roku had always been about hard work, and he preferred to train hard to gain all of his skills, harder than anyone else. While his father was very powerful, he wished to become much more powerful than even him.

Now it was his father's turn to talk to him.

"Roku, you arrived just in time! After the Raikage's speech, make sure you go up and shake his hand."

Roku groaned a little but nodded as he respected his father's wishes.

The Raikage was dark skinned and very muscular. He wore heavy looking golden bracelets on his wrist, and he did seem to be very powerful. Roku also noticed that a younger looking man, the appeared to look just like the Raikage was standing behind him with…_seven_ swords strapped to his back. Strange.

After the ceremony was over, Roku, along with his family, walked up to the Raikage and shook his rather large hand. Roku took a short glance at Kirabi who was standing behind the man, who nodded his head in return, before he returned to his house.

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_House_

Outside of Roku's house, the silver-haired boy with gleaming pure, seemingly pupil-less, and completely blue eyes sat on his roof and stared at the moon in silence. In a couple of weeks, he would commence his family's tradition to unlock his bloodline, the Kurokugan. A feared bloodline, one of the most powerful of the village, the Kurokugan was just as deadly as Konoha's famous Byakugan.

The Byakugan, also known as the White Eye, or the All-Seeing Eye, gave its user 360 degree vision. It could see everything for miles, well, everything above ground, that is.

The Kurokugan blocked the user's ability to see above ground, though it unlocked a much greater ability at the same time. It allowed the user to see everything touching the ground and underground with 360 degree vision for miles. If a person a mile away were to jump up and down, an expert user would be able to catch the vibrations through the earth and have a perfect visual of what was happening there. Just like the Byakugan, veins would appear next to the person's eyes and they would be able to see the chakra of living creatures.

The Byakugan could see everything looking toward the sun, and the Kurokugan could see everything toward the earth. That's why the last Raikage had thought up the brilliant idea of combining the powers of the Hyuuga and the Korochi. If a user could see both everything above ground and the vibrations below it, they would have eyes greater than the Sharingan! So the Raikage had attempted to abduct a young Hyuuga with still developing powers so that he could combine the genetics in an Orochimaru-worthy experiment with a member of the Korochi Clan.

Roku shook his head at the evil idea; kidnapping to make a clan stronger. Well, hopefully the new Raikage would make better decisions.

Yes, in weeks, Roku would begin the tradition that would activate his bloodline limit. Unlike the Hyuuga, the Korochi had to work to activate their bloodline. The tradition was long and would last for a full year, but the results would be amazing.

At the age of twelve, a member of the Clan was supposed to blindfold themselves for an entire year. He or she would have to learn of to eat, fight and live without vision. This would develop the user's skills to be able to naturally sense other people's chakras and be able to see without eyes. Once an exact year was completed, the blindfold would be removed and once light entered the eyes of the user, the bloodline would activate to block out the sudden sun, since the Kurokugan only allowed the users to see anything that touches the ground.

Roku would master the element of _earth_ this way, and truly become strong. All Korochi had _earth _chakra elements, and this tradition was a way to increase each user's strength. He could only eagerly anticipate his soon to be power.

________________________________________________________________________

_Unknown Location_

Pain picked up his necessary weapons and belongings, sealing them inside of a scroll, which he then tucked inside his pouch inside his robes. Unlike the rest of the Akatsuki, aside from Hidan, Pain didn't wear a shirt underneath his Akatsuki robes. The black cloak was his shirt, while he wore dark pants with dark shinobi sandals; all Akatsuki members wore the same pants, socks and sandals. His Konoha headband, aside from the scratched metal, was black as well.

"You've changed, Nagato-kun."

Pain sighed as he finished packing his necessary tools and money. He turned around to face a worried looking Konan who was standing behind him.

"We've all changed, Konan-chan. It's no surprise after joining this dark organization."

Konan shook her head in sadness.

"That doesn't matter! You're not the same man you used to be! You're more vicious, and less forgiving! Even your Rinnegan has changed!" she said to him.

Pain nodded his head in understanding. This was all true. Even his Rinnegan had changed. It had evolved into its final form. When activated, there was no white left in his eye. The orange iris completely took over his eye, so that there were only rings around his pupil. While the area around his eye was a darker orange than the rest, there was still no white left. His new Rinnegan had been what made him so powerful as well, even stronger than Sub-Zero.

"Such things don't matter at the moment, Konan. We just have to stay in this organization until Naruto becomes powerful enough to face its leader. Until then, we can protect him and the others from the inside. We cannot talk about this more; I must leave now and search for Sasori. However, the Leader told me to bring another member along with me as a precaution."

"You're not bringing me, are you," Konan sighed in sorrow.

Pain allowed as sigh of unhappiness to come to himself as well.

"No, I will not. There is something special about this Sasori figure. First of all, from Zetsu's report, he claimed that Kotaru was poisoned, which was why Zetsu was unable to…_dispose _of the body. Sasori is a special puppeteer, and there is no way that he killed Kotaru unless he had some sort of powerful secret. I'm not gonna risk you getting harmed by-"

"Oh here you go again!" Konan interrupted angrily. "Nagato, I'm an S-class ninja now! I'm no longer the helpless Genin that you always treated me like back when we had a sensei and smiles on our faces!"

Pain flinched at the harsh remembrance. The times really had changed. He wondered what Minato-sensei would think of his three students joining Akatsuki…

"I…I know you're strong, Konan. Of course you are…it's just that…_I _am not strong enough yet…"

Konan stared at him like he was insane.

"How much stronger do you need to be?! And what does that have to do with-"

"I'm not strong enough to protect you from everybody out there!!" Nagato finally burst out yelling. Konan flinched back at the level in his voice and the pain in his eyes. "I'm not strong enough to lose you! I'm not strong enough to tell Itachi that I didn't protect you! I'm not strong enough continue on protecting my brother without you!"

Konan stared in sadness at Nagato as he finished with his statement.

"But you're selfish enough not to care how I would feel if _you _were the one to die," she quietly finished for him.

He turned his head away from her and let a moment of silence flow into the room. Finally, he walked past her as he headed for his door.

"I'm taking Mangetsu with me. He's the perfect partner for fighting someone like Sasori. I'll be leaving immediately."

Turning the knob, he opened the door and began stepping out when Konan grabbed his shoulder and turned him around.

"There's no point in-"

He was quickly silenced as she reached up on her tip-toes and kissed him on the lips.

When they parted, she looked deep into his orange eyes with black spirals.

"I…I still love Nagato-kun," she whispered to him.

Nagato sighed as he looked into her eyes once more. It had been so long since he had seen her face with his normal eyes; he always kept his Rinnegan activated as a practice in control- so for this one moment he deactivated his eyes and responded:

"I still love you too, and I always will."

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_Somewhere in River Country_

Mangetsu Hozuki, known to the organization as Rain, was currently sitting on a large rock as he waited for his companion to decide which direction they would be traveling. Rain, underneath the Akatsuki robe, was dressed in a black under-amour with a purple vest over it (similar to Sub-Zero's blue one). His hat was placed on the rock next to him as it was not really needed at the moment. His messy black hair grew backwards and he wore a purple mask under his eyes. His headband, which was a Mist Village one, had a slash going right through the center. His ring, which read _water_, was held on his right hand middle finger.

He looked down impatiently to his partner as he called out to him in his smooth voice,

"I think we should head down to Suna, I'm sure such a large village will have a Jinchuuriki."

Hanzo of the Salamander, who was wearing the ring labeled _Salamander_, along with a strange water mask on his face with two breathing pipes running up on it, grunted back in response,

"Humph, and fight a Bijuu in the middle of the desert? We should instead look throughout the River Country," he responded in a low and gravely voice.

Rain shrugged his shoulders in acceptance. Both he and his partner specialized in _water _techniques. Fighting in the desert probably wouldn't be that great of an idea, even if Hanzo could practically create his own sea if he wanted to.

"Good point. So let's get moving-"

"Some one is coming!" Hanzo called out to him, motioning him to prepare.

Suddenly, an orange flash appeared in between them, revealing Pain standing with his arms crossed and orange Rinnegan activated.

Both of the Akatsuki gasped at the sudden arrival of such a ninja.

"Pain-sama," they both said to him, out of respect. No less was required for the second-in-command.

Pain turned his attention up to Rain who was sitting on the rocks.

"I request you to come with me to subdue Sasori Akasuna and recruit him to our ranks. You are ideal for the job, given your special abilities."

Rain snorted back at him.

"I thought you were supposed to be the all-powerful second-in-command?" he said rather mockingly. "Why would you need my help-?"

Rain was cut short as Pain held out his hand and called out,

"_Assaku Sousou!"_

Pain closed his hand into a fist, and in an instant, the very air around Rain seemed to compress, causing the surprised Akatsuki to explode…

…into water.

Water was splashed all over the large stone. Moments afterwards, the water itself seemed to creep back upwards, forming a sitting human shape on top of rock. It suddenly compressed, revealing a frowning Rain in perfect condition.

"Your _Hydration Technique_ is perfect for hunting down Sasori. And don't forget that _I am _the all-powerful second in command. Bringing you is just a…precaution."

Rain frowned more on top of the rock. It looked like he didn't really have a choice; he would have to help Pain fight Sasori and catch up with Hanzo later.

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_Konoha, Hokage Tower, Morning_

Sarutobi sighed as a large stack of papers was dropped on his desk by one of the workers of the tower, who fearfully left afterwards. It was early in the morning and he had already been assigned to read through and stamp all of the necessary papers.

He picked up the first file, quickly skimming through it and he stamped it without much else thought. Moving on to the next paper, he repeated the process which would take about another hour or so.

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_Hour Later_

_Thump!_

The Sandaime quickly woke up at the sudden loud noise ringing through his room, knocking over all of the papers he had finished before he fell to slumber. Bending over, he reached to pick up…

…all two of his papers.

_What?! Two papers?! I was only able to finish two papers! Well, there goes my two minute break. _

He sighed as he realized he wouldn't be going home until late. His office practically was his home. In fact-

"Hokage-sama!!!!!"

Hiruzen nearly knocked his papers over again as a Chunin burst into the room, holding some sort of letter in his hand.

"Hokage-sama, there's been-"

The Sandaime interrupted him in annoyance as he put his head into his palm.

"Back in my day, the Academy taught us manners, such as how to eat properly at a table, or how to _knock_ when entering a room. Perhaps I should once more add manners to the curriculum."

The Chunin chuckled sheepishly as he realized that he had forgotten to knock.

"G-Gomen, Hokage-sama,"

Hiruzen sighed as he twirled his wrist, motioning the man to go on. Taking the hint, the Chunin then said,

"A-Ah! There is a man here for you! Kumo has just elected a new Raikage and they have sent their Head Jonin to offer a peace treaty to Konoha!"

"What!" Hiruzen exclaimed in surprise.

It was tradition for a country to send their village's Head Jonin, the strongest Jonin and also elite captain of the Anbu, to offer a treaty of peace to another country to form an alliance. In response, the country would send their Head Jonin back with either a stamp of approval or a rejection.

Moments later, a tall dark-skin muscular man, with blonde hair and a strange hair style came in holding a scroll, as well as a ridiculous amount of swords on his back.

"What's up, Hokage-sama?" the man immediately asked. He fearlessly walked up to the desk, and he slapped the scroll down in front of the man. The sheer force of the impact shook all of the papers placed to the side, actually causing some to fall off.

Hiruzen looked on in surprise at the bold man before and at the scroll as well. Surely enough, the scroll was titled 'peace treaty', and it skimming through some of it, it explained that the new Raikage wished to make an alliance with Konoha.

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_Half an Hour Later_

"So what do you say, Mr. Hokage-sama?" Kirabi asked after they finished discussing the treaty.

The Sandaime stamped the paper and handed the scroll back to Kirabi. He had been surprised at this sudden offer of peace. The past few months, he had been wondering whether or not Kumo would start a war with Konoha. So accepting the alliance was a quick choice. Kumo has a strong military. Even their Genin who show up to the Chunin Exams usually do very well! Not only that, but the Land of Lightning is the only country to have _three _Jinchuuriki!

Hiruzen shook his head in appreciation. That village seemed to be the only one to truly respect their Jinchuuriki. The entire Village thought of each one as heroes. Hiruzen was surprised to find out that the Head Jonin who was meeting with him, Kirabi, was a Jinchuuriki himself, and the brother of the Raikage! Another Jinchuuriki, host of the Two Tailed Monster Cat was an Anbu captain. Her name was Yugito, and Kirabi had told him that she was very well respected for her talents.

The third Jinchuuriki was only a young man, almost twelve years old now. He was the host of the Seven Tailed Flaming Phoenix. This boy had the potential to be one of the strongest Jinchuuriki, because he was born into the Korochi Clan, and because he had one of the strongest Bijuu, which allowed his host _Lava Style_ jutsu. The boy's name had been Roku, if he remembered correctly.

"I say cheers, to a peaceful treaty and hopes that our two villages will work together well in the future. I will send for my Head Ninja at once, and he will deliver a confirmation treaty back to Kumo."

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's Dojo_

Kakashi Hatake faced his students as he prepared to tell them what he had planned. He had gathered them in Naruto's dojo so that they could spar together. Today was Friday, and in the Academy, they would be having their weekly sparring matches, so Kakashi thought that he would have his own sparring matches with the kids before school started.

"Alright, you four know the drill. We are going to be working on our taijutsu and kenjutsu today, so the sparring this morning will only consist of fighting with your fist and your weapons. Pure-charka related attacks still count, so Hinata, you may still use you _kaiten_, or your _empty palm_ and such."

Hinata smiled while the rest of the combatants groaned. Hinata usually dominated the sparring matches, because of her powerful Jyuuken as well as her chakra techniques.

"So then," Kakashi continued, "the first match will have to be Sasuke versus Hinata."

Sasuke groaned once more as he slowly walked up on the dojo.

"Come on, Kakashi sensei. I'm gonna be sparring with Hinata later today in the Academy anyway, can't we do something different for a change?"

Kakashi frowned thoughtfully.

"Well what do you have in mind, you scared little boy?"

Ignoring the remark, Sasuke responded,

"Uh, how about…we play ninja or something?"

Naruto cheered as he pumped his fist into the air.

"Yeah, that would be great! We haven't played ninja in such a long time, it would be great exercise!"

Hinata nodded her head as well, agreeing with Naruto. Sai also thought that it would be a good idea.

Kakashi sighed as he shook his head.

"You four will be applying to be _real _ninja at the end of this year! Don't you think that you're all a little too old to be running around, throwing wooden objects at each other?

Naruto shook his head in disagreement.

"No! And we can use our collection of dulled kunai and shuriken so that it'll be more realistic! Come on, it would be so much fun! I mean, we have another two hours until the Academy starts!"

Finally, Kakashi agreed with them.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt. While we're at it, why don't we make teams so that it's even more interesting? The first team to have both of their members hit with the shuriken or kunai loses."

The four nodded and formed their rival teams: Naruto and Hinata versus Sasuke and Sai. Whenever teams were formed, it was these two teams. They had always been fighting to see which team was better; they were bitter rivals.

Now it was Naruto to speak up.

"We will use all of Konoha as our battle grounds. Let's start in three minutes. Since both our teams are _it_, there's no real need to hide. Jutsu us allowed, though you are only out if you get it with the kunai and shuriken."

Both teams took their share of dulled kunai and shuriken and dashed out of the compound, waiting for Kakashi to give the signal to start.

________________________________________________________________________

_Rooftop, Minutes Later_

Naruto and Hinata hid behind a large vent on top of an apartment building's roof, while they looked to the top of the Hokage's monument, waiting for Kakashi to give the signal. Any minute now, Kakashi would throw his hand down, and the fight would begin.

"Do you remember the plan, Hinata-chan?" Naruto whispered to his friend who was standing next to him.

She quickly nodded her head and activated her Byakugan with one hand-seal, preparing for what was to come. The last time they had fought with these teams, Sasuke and Sai had won. She wouldn't let Naruto-kun down again!

Naruto nodded, almost as if he had read her thoughts, and he closed his eyes for a moment. Pushing chakra into them, when they opened, in place of his normal blue eyes were the golden iris and spirals of the Rinnegan.

________________________________________________________________________

_Streets_

Sasuke and Sai hid under a small bridge in Konoha, one that still gave them view of the Hokage monument. Sasuke already had his level two Sharingan activated, and Sai had his chakra ink bottle open and ready to use.

"You got the plan?" Sasuke asked his partner.

Sai nodded, not needing to respond.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hokage Monument_

Kakashi sighed and held his hand up, standing on top of his sensei's head. He hoped that his students wouldn't cause too much trouble, like last time. There was fire everywhere, and the Anbu had to get involved…

He quickly threw his hand down, signaling that wherever the kids were, they could start.

He turned around and started walking away, when he suddenly stopped, his one eye widening.

He turned back to the Hokage monument, and there was an Anbu standing where he just was.

"Kakashi Hatake, the Hokage wishes to speak with you immediately."

With that, the Anbu sunk into the ground disappearing from sight.

Before Kakashi poofed away, he allowed himself to smile under his mask.

_I knew that was a cool move to teach!_

________________________________________________________________________

_Rooftops_

Naruto and Hinata waited on the rooftop as they spotted a large ink hawk fly into the air on the other side of the village. Thinking quickly, Naruto and Hinata quickly jumped across rooftops so that they could get in attacking range of the two. Sasuke and Sai were in the air, and Naruto had the advantage because of his _wind _jutsu.

When they were in range, Naruto pumped his legs full of chakra and jumped high into the air. He faced his palms outward towards the oncoming bird and yelled out,

"_Wind Release: Cutting Whirlwind Technique!_"

A large gust of wind erupted from his palms and spread in the air as the invisible wind blades headed towards the flying duo.

On the hawk, Sai quickly said to Sasuke,

"That technique is too big! It keeps growing! We have to jump!"

Sasuke quickly shook his head.

"No, that's what they want! Go straight down now!"

Sai obeyed the commands and quickly sent his hawk straight down to the ground. The wind technique barely avoided them, but they avoided it unharmed.

On the ground, Hinata saw her opportunity coming to her.

"_Water Release: Water Geyser Jutsu!_"

Slamming her palms into the ground, her improved technique caused several geysers of water to shoot out of the ground and spiral towards the hawk.

In order to avoid the gushing water, Sai pulled his bird upward again…

Only for the ink creature to be slammed in the face by a falling Naruto who had a Rasengan in his hand.

The creature quickly exploded into ink, and Sasuke and Sai were sent flying to the ground. Mid-air though, Sai formed a one-handed seal and the ink instantly transformed into ink shuriken which fell to the ground towards the unaware Naruto.

Hinata saw the shuriken with her eyes though, and postponed following her enemies so that she could save Naruto. She jumped in the air above Naruto and expertly performed a mid-air kaiten, which defended them from the projectiles.

When she landed, she shared a nod with Naruto, and together they dashed forward to defeat their opponents.

Sasuke and Sai were already making their next move. On the streets grounds now, were there were luckily no people, Sai poured ink into the ground so that his snakes could hold down Naruto or Hinata, so that they would be an easy target to throw a kunai at. They had both started out the fight using jutsu instead of their dulled kunai, and things were heating up. When he finished pouring out ink, he put the cap back on his bottle when-

"Watch out!" Sasuke called out to him.

Pulling out his katana, Sai instinctively deflected the shuriken that Hinata had cleverly thrown at him. Back flipping so that he was now on the side of a building, he threw one of his kunai back at her, which she easily dodged.

Naruto dashed forward with a kunai in his hand and started to fight Sasuke hand-to-hand. The Uchiha was able to dodge Naruto's blows, and Naruto was able to deflect his, so no one was able to gain leverage over the other.

Metal clashed against metal, until Sasuke finally found an opening which he utilized, causing Naruto to have to back flip. When he landed, he was quickly subdued as Sai held up a seal and said,

"_Ink Flush Technique!_"

A countless number of snakes popped up under Naruto and wrapped around his body, continuously moving and strangling him.

"Crap!" the surprised masked blonde cried out, trying to free himself.

Sasuke smirked and casually tossed a dulled kunai at Naruto's head, hoping to get him out, when-

_Cling!_

Hinata's own kunai deflected the one aiming for the immobile Naruto. She quickly shunshined in front of him, eyes blazing, ready to defend her teammate.

Sai and Sasuke both closed in on them, with shuriken in their hands.

"It's over Hinata," Sai said to her. "There's no use in trying to defend Naruto."

Sasuke continued for him.

"You're outnumbered, and I can tell that we trapped the real Naruto," he called out, pointing to his crimson eyes.

"You might as well-" Sasuke stopped mid-sentence as he felt something bounce of his back.

Turning around he saw and heard a kunai fall to the ground, behind him and behind his partner as well.

Two Naruto clones, which were standing on nearby rooftops, laughed before they dispersed themselves, having done their jobs.

Naruto and Hinata smiled to themselves as Sai and Sasuke stared at each other in disbelief and the snakes on Naruto released their hold on him.

Naruto ran up to his teammate, cheering:

"We did it, Hinata-chan!" and also giving her a victory hug.

Finally, Sasuke asked,

"H-How did you make two clones while the snakes were suppressing you?"

Naruto laughed at his friend.

"I didn't!" he responded. "I made them before the battle even started!"

Sai shook his head in disappointment. He should have seen that possibility earlier! While he had been expecting a quick and easy win, the tables turned on him.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later, Ramen Stand_

Later, while the group of friends were eating at the local ramen stand trying to get breakfast in before the Academy and celebrating Naruto and Hinata's victory, their gray-haired sensei poofed out of nowhere behind them.

He sat next to Sasuke and ordered himself a cup of water.

"So how did the game turn out?" he asked, eye-smiling at his students.

Hinata spoke up for everybody.

"Naruto-kun and I won!" she reported, happily eating pork ramen next to Naruto.

Kakashi nodded his head and thanked Ichiraku when he handed him a glass of water.

"Well, everybody listen up; I have exiting news!" he claimed, waiting for everyone's attention. When everybody stopped eating and turned to him, he continued,

"Believe it or not, we're all going on a trip together again!" he said, waiting to see their reactions.

Naruto got up and cheered, excited to be doing something new.

"That's awesome! Where are we going then?" he asked his sensei, already dancing in anticipation.

Kakashi cleared his throat before saying,

"The Land of Lightning, specifically, the Village Hidden in the Clouds."

Naruto stopped dancing and everybody's faces grew solemn at the news.

"Why on earth would we be going to the place that tried to kidnap Hinata and nearly killed all of us in the process?" Naruto asked, thinking his sensei was mad.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders.

"That's what I told the Hokage at first. Apparently, a new Raikage has been selected and he wishes to make peace with our village after his predecessor tried to attack us. They sent their Head Ninja to offer the peace treaty, and now the Hokage is sending me there to return the signed treaty as tradition. And because I'm the sensei of you four, you all get to be excused from the Academy to come with me."

They all soaked up the information and slowly they grew happy again.

"Well I guess that's good news to hear," Hinata voiced her opinion. "At least we get to see a new village and get out of the Academy for a while. When will we be leaving though?" she asked.

Kakashi nodded his head and patted her on the head, a habit she had thought he had gotten over.

"Great question! The Hokage wants us to leave as soon as we can, so you guys can pack up and get ready and we'll leave this afternoon!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Kumo_

Pain and Rain sat down on a cliff on one of the mountains close to the village. They had recently seen the new Raikage in several of his speeches, and Pain was impressed.

"His strength rivals that of the legendary Sannin, Tsunade, and he's smart, allying himself with Konoha," he had said.

Rain shrugged the man off as unimportant.

"Who cares? Physical strength means little in a true ninja battle. If he were to fight me and rely on his strength, I would kick his ass."

Pain nodded in agreement. The man was powerful, but he was sure to have some sort of special jutsu as well.

Now, the two Akatsuki were thinking on where Sasori might be in the village.

"Maybe he left now that the Raikage has been announced," Rain threw up into the conversation. "Maybe he only came to Kumo in the first place to see the Raikage."

Pain frowned thoughtfully as he thought about the possibility.

"Yes, Sasori might have been interested in measuring the Raikage's power, just like we have. And that would mean that he would be traveling down the mountain now, heading somewhere else. Perhaps we should investigate this possibility?"

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of Kumo, Hours Later_

Sasori, inside of Hiruko, walked down the mountain and away from Kumo, alongside his young apprentice, Koutetsu.

"Where are we going now?" his dark haired apprentice asked.

Sasori, in his deep and gravely voice, replied,

"Suna. I have a feeling that we will meet with Akatsuki soon, and when we do, I want the advantage in terrain. There is also a boy there, who has powers that…interest me."

Koutetsu nodded and turned away as he continued walking forward down the trail. His master usually went on these…special trips, where he would seek out a powerful person and face them in battle.

Only when his master won, which he always did, he would turn the body into a human puppet.

The thought of the process of turning a human into a puppet disgusted Koutetsu, but he didn't dare tell this to his sensei. While Sasori had plans of evil in his mind, Koutetsu merely accompanied the puppet because his wished to learn as much as he can from the best.

And Sasori was the best in his trade.

There was no better puppeteer in the world than Sasori. And because Koutetsu was a puppeteer himself, Sasori was the best possible sensei. Where his sensei went, he went. And Koutetsu had a pretty good idea who Sasori was interested in. Koutetsu wished to see the boy as well.

________________________________________________________________________

_Koutetsu Arc_

_Years Ago_

A five year old boy with dark hair and dark eyes smiled up at his orphanage leader as he nodded his head.

"That's right! I'm gonna be a powerful ninja one day! I'll be so strong, not even the legendary Third Kazekage will be as renowned as me!"

The instructor frowned a little at the mention of Suna's favorite and now lost Kage, but he smiled and said back to the boy,

"That's a great dream! And I think with the right amount of determination you just might be able to do it! You will be able to go to the Academy when you turn eight, so do you think you will go?"

Koutetsu laughed.

"Of course! How else will I become a ninja?"

________________________________________________________________________

_Three Years Later_

Koutetsu, the now eight year old, was now just about to enter the Academy and he was as happy as ever. Even though he didn't have any family, he always managed to smile and have a great time.

Right now, he was in the park with all of his friends. Ever since he turned seven, he had been given his own small apartment to live in, so he could go out and play whenever he wanted to.

He and his friends were playing soccer, and everything was going fine, until suddenly, one kid shouted out,

"Look out, it's the demon!"

Koutetsu was confused and somewhat scared as everyone stopped playing and ran away as fast as they could.

Koutetsu ran as well, not knowing where the demon was. While he was sprinting, he turned around to look as he heard a voice shout out.

"Why does everybody run?! If you want me to be a demon, then I'll be a demon!!!"

A red-haired boy who appeared to be crying held out his hands and sand shout out from the ground to attack the fleeing children.

Koutetsu screamed in shock as the sand grabbed onto his right leg and pulled him out while he was still running. He flipped over and hit the ground hard; pain surging through his body.

But the red-haired boy was not done.

He held out his hands and the sand around Koutetsu's right leg compressed, completely crushing everything below his knee.

Koutetsu cried out in pain as blood spurted everywhere. He screamed for several seconds, and for a moment, he saw a dirty blond haired man block the sand from doing any more damage before he passed out from the pain.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hospital, the Next Day_

When Koutetsu woke up, he stared up at the ceiling as he thought about where he was and why he was in this bed.

Suddenly, the memories of the red-haired boy attacking him flooded into his head. The intense pain that he had felt when the boy had…

Koutetsu stopped mid-thought as he thought about what the boy did. He subconsciously wiggled his toes, and he was surprised to find out that he could only feel the sheets against one of his feet.

He tried sitting up, and after the second attempt, he sat frozen still as he stared at his feet.

Or foot, to correctly phrase it.

Koutetsu only saw one foot. When he looked at his right leg, he only saw down to his knee which was wrapped in bandages.

At that moment, a doctor walked in, noticing that Koutetsu was sitting up and staring at his injury.

"K-Koutetsu-san," he started out, a sad look on his face. "I'm sorry to tell you that we had to amputate your right leg below your knee, due to the severity of the damage. I'm afraid that you will never walk normally again, nor will you ever be able to become a ninja."

Koutetsu's eyes widened as the news hit him hard.

________________________________________________________________________

­_Days Later, Kazekage's Office_

Outside of the door to the Kazekage's office, Koutetsu took a deep breath as he prepared to enter the Kage's room. He was using crutches to walk, and he had had difficulty walking up to the tower.

"Enter," a voice boomed out from inside the room.

Koutetsu followed orders and entered the room as instructed. He saw a middle-aged man in the Kage robes, sitting at the desk.

"What is it that you want, boy?" the man asked with a voice laced in boredom.

Koutetsu swallowed once before he responded,

"Kazekage-sama, I was told that I would no longer be able to become a ninja, due to my…_accident_," he hissed out the last word.

"But being a ninja is my dream, and I want to know if I will still be able to attend the Academy for their lessons and such. Even with my leg, I will still be able to listen to the lectures, and when it's time for sparring, I could-"

He was interrupted as the Kazekage burst out with uncontrollable and cruel laughter. Koutetsu's eyes narrowed as the man continued to laugh at him.

"You?! Go to the Academy?!" He started laughing once again before he was able to stop.

"You're a cripple! How can you expect to be a ninja when you're not even suited to be a mailman?!?!"

Koutetsu seethed in anger. One moment he had been fine, enjoying life and having fun, and then the next moment, he woke up in the hospital without a leg and without a dream. He tried to control his emotions while he responded to the cruel man's question.

"I can still circulate chakra. I can learn everything about what it takes to be a ninja, I will be able to perform Genjutsu, and I will be able to perform Ninjutsu as well as-"

He was interrupted more as the Kage sobered up and returned to his normal state.

"No. I forbid a _cripple _such as you from entering the Academy. Now get out of my office before my morals allow me to kick a cripple out with my foot!"

Koutetsu, grinding his teeth, turned around and exited the room.

________________________________________________________________________

_Days Later, Academy_

Koutetsu had managed to climb onto one of the roofs of the Academy, and he was currently watching the students who had just started begin training. His persistent personality did not allow him to give up: he would become a ninja no matter what! And he wouldn't even stop at that! He would become the strongest ninja in the village and prove that even a cripple can become powerful!

Eventually, the students below stopped sparring and moved on to weapons training. Three instructors stood in front of different tables of weapons, and they eventually went worth and divided the group of children, supervising them while they trained with the weapons.

Koutetsu observed each one, but only one interested him. There were a lot of swords and spears and such, but one weapon, which, if he heard correctly, which was called a jouhyou, was a quick long ranged weapon that seemed deadly. Not only that, but since Koutetsu imagined that his mobility would be slacking, he thought that a long-range but quick moving weapon would be great!

A jouhyou (rope dart) was a metal piece attached to a long rope. It could be spun around quickly, used defensively and offensively at the same time.

However, the brown-haired girl who had chosen to practice with the weapon seemed to be scared of it for some reason. She didn't even seem to want to use any weapons, and the instructors were having quite a hard time with the girl.

Shaking his head, he moved on to other students in the area. One boy, who didn't seem to be doing that well, claimed that he didn't need weapons, and he was arguing with his instructor.

"I don't really need to use a sword!" the boy said. "I'm going to be a puppeteer, and I don't even need to _move_!"

The instructor shook his head in disagreement.

"Even if you become a puppeteer and completely rely on your chakra abilities, you still should be able to have _some _sort of other skills!"

The argument went on, but Koutetsu was no longer interested. He too busy thinking about what he had just heard.

_A type of ninja that doesn't need to rely on moving, only on his chakra abilities?!_

What was the word…?

A puppeteer!

Koutetsu crept away from the Academy and back on the ground as he headed to the Suna library to research more about this type of ninja.

________________________________________________________________________

_Library_

For the first time in his life, Koutetsu stepped into the library of Suna to research something. He had never before spent time to look everything up; his life had been about fun and games and he had figured that the Academy would teach him everything he needed to know.

Well not anymore.

He was amazed at how much information was packed in the thousands of scrolls. He traveled to the ninja sections and finally he was able to find a general scroll that was titled: Puppets.

_Puppeteers are people who use Kugutsu no Jutsu, Art of the Puppet Technique. __This jutsu uses strings of chakra to control __puppets__ like marionettes. Any number of chakra strings can be used to control a puppet, but users with more skill can use fewer strings per puppet. A true master can entirely control a puppet with just one string. _

_Apart from being used to control marionettes, the chakra strings can be attached to other objects, allowing the user to control, or at the very least disrupt, other things. _

_This technique has few weaknesses: since the puppeteer uses his or her hands to manipulate the puppets, if the hands are disabled, then the technique could be neutralized. Also, while controlling the doll, the user is wide open if the opponent bypasses the puppet. For this reason, puppeteers avoid battle, relying almost exclusively on their puppets instead. _

Koutetsu's eyes widened.

This technique of controlling puppets was perfect! If he couldn't move, then he would be able to make another puppet move for him instead!

But in order to do that, he needed to have great control with chakra. While spying on the Academy, he had learned the very general basics of chakra, but not everything. So Koutetsu decided to spend the rest of the morning and afternoon studying about chakra using different scrolls.

________________________________________________________________________

_Evening _

After leaving the library, Koutetsu could honestly say that he had learned and memorized all he could about chakra. For some reason, memorizing a lot of information from scrolls stuck with him so much better than when he heard about it at the Academy.

He smiled to himself; maybe not being able to go to the Academy would turn out to be a good thing! He knew for sure that he would be returning to the library daily to soak up as much information about everything he could find.

Now, he was heading to the puppet warehouse of Suna. Because Suna encouraged ninja to become puppeteers, they had a warehouse of parts that could be used to create a puppet, or basic puppets that students could train with.

The warehouse was very large, and he was surprised to find that there were no people in it. It was just him and an entire warehouse of puppets!

Taking a deep breath and trying to control his excitement, he walked up to a section of the warehouse which specialized in legs.

Suddenly, an idea sparked up in his mind. Perhaps…perhaps he could use one of these puppets leg for his own!

He walked around with his crutches, looking at all different types of puppet legs, trying to find one that would fit his size.

Eventually, he came across one that seemed his size, and he picked it off of the shelf. It was designed for a joint to fit into it, so it had room for his knee to go into it.

He carefully took off the lower part of it, below the knee, and compared it to his own leg, looking at the size.

The puppets leg was just a little too big, but maybe, he could find a way to make it just is size…

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later_

Once more, after spending his morning and afternoon in the library, aside from eating breaks, Koutetsu returned to the warehouse to work on his project. He had woken up this morning extremely exited, because today was the day that he would finish the leg so that it was exactly his size, and so his knee with right into it and so that it stayed on his leg. Not only that, but in order to fully operate and respond to his boy, he needed to use chakra to control it. He wasn't worried about controlling it with chakra though; when he wasn't eating, sleeping, studying at the library, or working at the warehouse, he was practicing his chakra control.

The scroll about the kugutsu no jutsu had said that he could use chakra to control other things besides puppets, so he had been practicing. He started by just getting accustomed to his own chakra; he would sit in his room and just swirl patterns of it inside his body. He this, he went on to more advanced things.

At first, he started really small, like trying to lift up an apple in the air using only a string of chakra from his finger. He quickly mastered this extremely useful technique, to the point where he could compress the chakra so that it would become invisible to the human eye. He was shocked at first when he did this because it seemed that he was making the apple float in the air with his finger!

Then he moved on to even bigger things, like never using his actual hands for things unless absolutely need to. He would open doors with chakra strings, making sure that the chakra was compressed and invisible, and he would eat breakfast with his chakra, and he would grab scrolls and flip pages with chakra and etc. The only time he actually used his hands was for personal hygiene and when he was working on the puppet leg.

He had even gotten to the point where he could use more than one chakra string at a time. He could no use all five fingers to control five strings of chakra, which was great for his progress.

Now, he was at the warehouse staring at his complete leg. There was noting special about it; it was a wooden and basic, but it was what he needed to walk normally again. Never again would he have to use crutches!!

He was also sure that he would have to modify the leg in the future, and probably make new legs all together out of different material like metal, so that his leg would no longer be breakable or a vulnerable point in a battle.

But that would come later. Now, he grabbed the leg, and sat down on the ground, with butterflies in his stomach. He attached the leg to the bottom of his knee on his injured leg. Next, he sent his charka into the leg to see if the special areas of chakra that he had constructed into the leg worked.

Sure enough, the toes were flexible, as well as his ankle and foot. Amazing!

Slowly and carefully, he tried to stand up with two legs for the first time in many weeks, balancing himself with the crutches.

Then, he let go of the crutches, letting them fall to the ground, a part of his past. Balancing himself, he was perfectly able to stand still with his new leg!

Carefully, he slowly took a step forward with his new leg, putting pressure on it and making sure that it didn't collapse…

It didn't!

Then, he took a step with his real foot, coming back to a standing still position. He repeated the process, until he was walking normally.

He did it! He was walking!

He quickened up the pace until he was jogging, and then until he was running at a full sprint around the warehouse, laughing with joy. He did it!

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later_

Now that Koutetsu wasn't working on a leg for himself, he had more time to study at the library and train with chakra. Not only that, but he decided to physically train himself as well, in taijutsu and kenjutsu, and maybe even a little ninjutsu. He would prove everybody wrong! He would become the most powerful ninja without the need of a leg!

Now, he was currently sitting on the roof of the academy, concealed and watching the students train with weapons. He himself was great with shuriken and kunai; throwing both had become natural to him. He didn't know why, but he picked up all of the ninja stuff extremely quickly because he had studied about all of it beforehand.

While the academy students picked up kunai for the first time and tried throwing it at logs, when Koutetsu had first picked up kunai, it was after he had spent a days studying about the techniques required to throw one.

That's why when he first threw one; it was a near bulls-eye. And after he continued practicing with it for a day, he would hit dead center every time, even if his was throwing five kunai at the same time.

He also studied on every weapon that he saw at the academy. He would research the different types of weapons and memorize their forms, and after the Academy was done with for the day, he would go and practice with the weapons by himself, just like the kunai.

Right now it was nearing the end of day for the Academy, and Koutetsu was waiting for everybody to leave. Now that he had his new leg, he could easily drop in and train without anybody questioning him.

Eventually, the instructors told the students to put their weapons back on the tables and to head home for the day. Koutetsu waited an extra ten minutes for everybody, including the instructors, to leave, so that he wouldn't be spotted. When he assumed that it was safe to go down and practice, he got ready to jump down to the grounds when he stopped himself, having spotted someone walking back to the training area.

A girl his age that had short brown hair and brown eyes walked up to the weapons table. She was wearing a yellow scarf despite the warm weather, and had a blue short sleeve shirt on. She was also wearing a short tan skirt.

After a moment of looking at her, Koutetsu recognized the girl to be the one who always had trouble with weapons and was afraid of them. Surely enough, the girl walked up to her jouhyou and picked it up. She then walked over to in front of one of the training logs and started spinning the jouhyou around in a somewhat sloppy manner. When she tried to throw the weapon at the log, it went to the side, completely missing it.

The girl cursed to herself and tried it again, wrapping it up.

Koutetsu shook his head as he noticed how wrong her form was. After a while, he couldn't wait any longer and he jumped down to the ground, silent, so that she didn't notice him.

He walked up to the girl, stopped, and turned around and walked to the weapons table. Looking at all the weapons, he decided to pick his new favorite, similar to the jouhyou, the chain whip. He was surprised that no one used it in the Academy; most kids ran to the katana and the swords instead.

He then walked up to the training log across from hers, so that he wouldn't bother her.

He began spinning his chain whip around, almost professionally, and when he threw it, it whipped into the center of the log, leaving a noticeable chip in it.

At the sound of the whirling noises the chain made and the cracking sound from when it hit the log, the girl turned around to look at the boy her age that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Koutetsu wrapped the chain whip back up along his arm and worked on a taijutsu form that went along with the chain whip. He punched and he kicked the air and in the middle of one jump, he slung the chain from out of his arm and began spinning it again. He went through wide sweeping motions, which defended him in all directions, and once more he finished the form by flinging the pointed tip of the chain whip at a log so that it struck dead center, this time so powerfully that the tip actually got stuck in the wood. Koutetsu had to forcefully yank it back so that he could wrap the chain whip up once more.

The girl walked up to him quickly and before he could practice more, she asked him,

"W-Who are you? W-What's your name?"

Koutetsu turned to the girl and with a small smile on his face.

"My name is Koutetsu, what's yours?" he asked.

The girl looked down for a moment, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, I'm Matsuri. I came here today so that can get better with my jouhyou," she responded. "But you're so good with that chain whip! Do you come here to practice everyday?"

Koutetsu shrugged.

"Only recently. But getting more practice in than anyone else is how I plan to become the greatest."

Matsuri nodded in understanding. Suddenly, a thought popped into her mind.

"Y-You look my age, but I've never seen you in the Academy," she pointed out. She couldn't see that he was using a wooden leg because he had long tan pants and sandals that covered his feet. He was also wearing a black shirt. "Did you graduate already?" she asked him, curious.

Koutetsu shook his head.

"No, I didn't graduate already; although I could probably pass if I take the exam right now. I wasn't allowed to join the academy with the rest of my age group this year," he said looking to the side.

Matsuri seemed a little shocked.

"Why not?!" she asked him, confused at why someone as talented as Koutetsu wasn't allowed into the Academy.

Koutetsu, after frowning thoughtfully for a moment, lifter up his right pant leg, and showed Matsuri that his leg was wooden from the knee down.

She gasped in shock when she saw his leg.

"H-How did it happen," she finally was able to ask him.

At this, Koutetsu's face grew angry.

"I was attacked by a certain…ninja for no reason. My leg was severely injured and the doctors had to amputate it, telling me that I would never walk normally again and that I could never become a ninja. I took matters into my own hands then, and I constructed my own leg, using puppets. I plan to become a puppeteer, and the most powerful ninja in the village."

After saying all this, Koutetsu was surprised as to why he just told this girl his dreams and ambitions. He waited in silence and waited for her to respond.

"Wow," she finally said, in awe, "that's really courageous of you, not to give up! But now that you can walk, why don't you join the Academy?"

Koutetsu shrugged.

"I don't know. The Kazekage has his mind set that a cripple can't be a ninja."

Matsuri angrily shook her head now.

"That's outrageous!! You could still attend to our lessons, and clearly you're better than everybody in our class with weapons, and…"

She stopped and blushed in embarrassment when she realized that she had nearly been screaming in his defense. Koutetsu laughed at her passion and when he was able to control himself, he said,

"I like you, Matsuri. I think you and I are gonna be good friends. I see that you're having some trouble with your jouhyou; would you like me to help you?"

Matsuri blushed a little more at this, but she nodded her head, more than willingly to accept the extra help.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later, Morning_

For the past few weeks, Koutetsu and Matsuri practiced together after the Academy was over. Both enjoyed the companionship as it made the training easier. It was early morning in Suna now, and the sun was just rising on the horizon. As Koutetsu made his way to the library, he decided to try and take a different route.

He turned down a different street than usual, trying to take a longer route to the library and enjoy the morning. Early morning was Koutetsu's favorite time of day, because only guard ninja were out; everybody else was still sleeping. However, this morning was different. As Koutetsu walked by a different area, he noticed that someone else was awake.

Up on top of a large apartment building rooftop, he sensed the powerful chakra of another person. Curious, he used chakra to run up the side of the building, and then when he reached the top, he was shocked to see…

The red-haired boy sitting at the edge of the building!

_It's…him…_

Without turning, the boy called out to Koutetsu,

"What do you want? Tell me before I decide to kill you."

Koutetsu's eyes widened and the evil chakra that seemed to be emitting from the boy. After thinking for a moment he responded,

"I only wish to know…what your name is," he asked.

Gaara shook his head and for a moment he was quiet.

"Sabaku no Gaara," he finally said.

Koutetsu nodded and turned away from him, preparing to jump off the apartment building.

"Gaara of the Desert…you were the one to cripple me. I will gain strength and one day I will come to speak with you once more, and when I do, I'll kill you!"

Gaara turned his head to look back at Koutetsu, and the two connected hateful eyes for a moment. Gaara was slightly surprised at the power in Koutetsu's eyes, and then he turned back to face the city.

"And what is your name?" he responded, still in his calm voice.

"Koutetsu Sanfu," Koutetsu answered back.

Gaara nodded his head.

"Very well. Koutetsu, you will try to kill me, but you will fail like all the others, and only then will you realize how powerful I really am. And then _I _will kill you."

Koutetsu jumped off the apartment building and walked away, this time not toward the library but toward the Kazekage's tower.

________________________________________________________________________

_Kazekage's Office_

The Kazekage was busy dealing with his meddlesome paper when he heard a knock on the door. Annoyed already, he called out,

"Enter."

The door opened, and a dark haired boy walked in. It took a moment for him to recognize that it was the cripple who had asked him if he could join the Academy weeks ago. But then why was he walking…"

"Kazekage-sama," Koutetsu greeted. He really didn't want to talk with the man, but Matsuri convinced him to ask the Kage once more to let him into the Academy. He really didn't want to, but he guessed he could try and ask.

"I want you to reconsider not letting me into the Academy. As you can see, I have found ways to walk again. I am fully mobile; I can run, jump, sprint, kick, anything. I-"

The Kazekage interrupted. Over time, Koutetsu assumed that the man had the personality that allowed him to interrupt a lot, which was fairly annoying.

"You obviously have a weakness," he said. "Let me…show you!"

With that, the man disappeared from the desk, reappearing in the middle of the air, having used a shunshin. He flew toward the surprised boy, and when he landed in front of him, he performed a powerful chakra-enhanced sweep kick, hitting Koutetsu's wooden leg.

The leg snapped in half, and Koutetsu fell to the ground hard. The leg that he had spent weeks making was now broken on the ground, his chakra being disrupted.

The Kazekage stood up, smirking at the boy.

"If I can do that to you now, then an enemy ninja will be able to do that in battle. You would be nothing but a _hindrance _to your teammates. As long as you don't have a leg, then I'm not going to let you into my Academy," he harshly said.

Koutetsu shook his head in sadness and surprisingly deep hatred that he hadn't felt before.

"Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?" he put up, giving the man a last chance to make up his mind.

The Kazekage shook his head.

"No. My decision is non negotiable. You _will not _enter the Academy while I am the Kazekage!"

Koutetsu nodded his head in understanding and stood up, standing on one foot.

"Then there is nothing else I have to say to you. Have a good day, Kazekage-sama," he said through closed teeth. He turned around and hopped out of the office, heading back to his house to get his crutches.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later that Day_

"He did what?!" Matsuri nearly screamed at him, after he told her what had happened to his leg and what the Kazekage said to him.

Koutetsu didn't reply as he slowly sat to the ground, still managing to smile at his new friend.

"It's okay though," he reassured her. "I'll make myself stronger than even the Kage, and I'll prove this whole village wrong!

"And I guess until I make myself a new leg or at least a temporary one, I'll just watch you and help you with your training."

Matsuri sighed and her friend. She had no idea how he managed to keep his cool over this situation. How much did it take before he snapped?

She went over and got her jouhyou, and trained with it while Koutetsu helped from the sidelines.

________________________________________________________________________

_Months Later, Early Morning_

Koutetsu walked toward the library once again this morning, though he didn't plan to stay long. He just wished to rent a few jutsu scrolls then leave, because today he had other plans. Months ago, he had tested to see what his primary elemental chakra was, and he was surprised to find out that he was _lightning _natured, which was very rare to find in Suna. So he planned to go and pick up more jutsu scrolls because he had already mastered the basic ones that he had and he had memorized all of the info he could study about the nature.

It always amazed him how well he could memorize things that he read. He could still recite what chakra was nearly word for word, and he had read about it in a scroll months ago!

Anyway, this morning he planned to go and have breakfast with his best and only friend, Matsuri. The girl had been really kind and nice to him, even helping him when he needed to make a new leg. It seemed that she was almost as interested in puppets and weapons as he was which surprised him. So yesterday while they were relaxing together he invited her to have breakfast with him, she gladly accepted with a blush on her face.

Koutetsu was wearing a tight black t-shirt under a white upper body outfit that covered his neck and covered his arms with sleeves. He was also wearing tan pants which concealed his leg. Koutetsu's new leg was completely modified and better. It was made of a light type of nearly indestructible metal, which wouldn't break under the strain of any element of force. Not only that, but he had added some weapons to it, just like the many other puppets that he had created.

Yes, Koutetsu had moved on to actually making his own puppet. He started off by making a puppet that looked exactly like him in shape. Then he used a special earth jutsu that made sand cover his body and make it seem like he had actual skin on, as well as cloths. The result was amazing! It was a perfect copy of him, like a shadow clone, expect it wouldn't dispel if hit once! The only problem was that Koutetsu had yet to find an efficient way to carry all of his puppets with him, or seal it in scrolls. But he would soon find that out, and when he did, he would be able to make puppet clones!

He had really had fun with the puppet clone that he first created to look like him. Using the _earth _jutsu, (_earth _conveniently being his second chakra nature) sand came up and covered the puppets body so that it looked just like Koutetsu. He also decided to name his special puppet. He called it Rasetsu.

Then, Koutetsu walked with the puppet over to Matsuri's apartment building (sadly he had found out before that her parents had died from enemy ninjas with weapons, which was why she had first been so scared to use weapons) and he had hid behind the building.

Activating a jutsu that he had discovered through a scroll in the library, he was able to see everything that the puppet could see, as well as hear everything and speak through the puppets mouth. His chakra strings were compressed and invisible, so that she wouldn't notice them. He had researched and vaguely found a way to be able to control his puppets from a short distance, but he really wanted to find out how to control his puppets from miles away. How great would it be if he could fight a battle using his puppets, and he was safe miles away from the actual battle? There was no known way to do this, but he would find a way, and invent his own technique, making him one of the greatest puppeteers.

Back with Matsuri, she had gone through a normal day with Rasetsu, never noticing that it was only a puppet.

Then, while they were training with weapons at the Academy, the real Koutetsu walked out to say high to Matsuri.

The girl was shocked as to why she was seeing two Koutetsu's at the same time.

Both of them tried to prove that they were real, and then they all had fight, trying to find out who was the imposter.

Fighting with the puppet while he was trying to control it at the same time and make it look believable was pretty hard, but Koutetsu had managed to do it, and make it look like the puppet nearly killed him.

Matsuri had been very upset when she had found out that the imposter was only a puppet. She had been even more shocked though when an exact copy of herself walked up to the puppet Koutetsu. Yes, Koutetsu had thought that it would be funny if he made a puppet and jutsu to look exactly like Matsuri, and it _was _funny.

The two puppets seemingly walked away together, leaving the real Matsuri to start nagging the real Koutetsu about his mischievous behavior.

Now, Koutetsu wanted to use his puppet clone for different purposes: to test his own power in a fight. It was early in the morning and nobody was awake yet, so Koutetsu returned to the same apartment building that he had encountered Gaara on before.

Sure enough, when he (his puppet) walked up the apartment building, he saw Gaara sitting in the same place on the roof.

"I have returned," Koutetsu said speaking through Rasetsu.

Gaara turned his head around and stood up so that he was facing Rasetsu.

"Oh? And are you going to try and kill me now?" he asked, a mocking and bored tone in his voice.

Koutetsu twitched his finger, causing Rasetsu to shake his head.

"No, not today. I merely wish to test my power against you!" he responded. Rasetsu could use the same jutsu that Koutetsu could, though it was tricky to get the hand seals right. Not only that, but he had specially modified this specific clone so that its 'bones', or puppet joints, were made out of the same metal Koutetsu's leg was made out of. It also had secret weapons hidden in its body.

Gaara shook his head.

"If you're not going to come at me with all you've got, then it will be easy to kill you!"

Rasetsu then swung his arms sideways, and ten kunai appeared floating in the air. Koutetsu made sure that Rasetsu would be able to use chakra as well, so that it was more realistic.

Using chakra strings to hold the kunai, the projectiles flung forward at high speeds and they went straight towards Gaara…

But without even moving, or even blinking, sand flew up at the last moment out of nowhere to shield Gaara.

Gaara smirked and then he held out his hand.

Instantly, sand shot out of the street grounds and quickly enwrapped Rasetsu. Not even lifting the puppet in the air, Gaara closed his fist, saying

"_Desert Funeral!_"

After several seconds of silence, Gaara looked at his shaking hand which hadn't managed to close completely.

Suddenly, an arm broke free from the sand prison, and well as another arm, and then a leg, and then Rasetsu completely broke free out of the prison. Because he was controlling the puppet with his chakra, his puppet could have insane strength that a human couldn't possible have.

Rasetsu's 'skin' was shattered and sand was falling off of its face. He was bent over slightly so that its arms were hanging down, but its face was still smiling at Gaara, who was no slightly becoming scared. The metal interior of the puppet was partially showing, until the real hidden Koutetsu activated his jutsu and the sand crawled back up on his face.

(A/N: This move in the story will inspire Gaara to come up with his armor of sand later down the line)

A now perfect and completely normal looking Rasetsu stood up straight, seemingly unfazed by the sand.

Gaara was shocked at seeing his first victim to survive the sand burial.

"H-How did you not d-die?" he stuttered out. "W-What are you?"

Rasetsu ignored the question and opened his mouth, seemingly to speak.

Instead, at least thirty senbon needles shot out of his mouth, heading quickly towards Gaara.

Gaara was protected by more sand, however, and he was unhurt by the attack.

Now, Rasetsu's arms clicked sideways for a moment, and two long bladed chain whips fell out of his sleeves.

Spinning them around professionally for a moment, he began attacking Gaara, the bladed whips snapping and swinging and Gaara, causing his sand to go crazy in order to protect the boy.

_Hmm_ Koutetsu thought as he was looking through Rasetsu's eyes. _It seems that his sand is always protecting him from my attacks! Maybe I should try a different approach._

Rasetsu called back his whips, which went back into his sleeves, and then he went through several hand-seals before he slammed his palms into the roof.

Gaara saw that the chain whips rocketed out of Koutetsu's sleeves once more, but this time they went into the ground.

Before Gaara could react, chains underneath him appeared and wrapped around him, though once more his sand surrounded him first to protect him.

While Gaara was held captive in his circle of sand, Rasetsu went through several hand-seals and ended on the horse seal.

"_Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!_"

He then held out his hands towards Gaara and small but quick branches of lightning shot out of his finger tips, quickly headed toward the captive boy.

Unable to dodge, Gaara forced up more sand to defend himself. The frontal sand effectively blocked most of the attack, and Gaara's defensive sand did the rest.

Rasetsu wasn't finished though. Still having the chains coming out of his sleeves, he sent his current of lightningdown through the metal whips.

The lightning traveled through the roofs with the chains and then it went up directly to Gaara, who already had the majority of his sand deflecting the frontal lightning, and when the chains ignited with electricity, the sand surrounding Gaara that was holding them off was penetrated and the chains closed in on Gaara, wrapping around him.

The red-haired boy screamed in pain as the bladed whips cut in to his skin and electricity pulsed threw his body, only for him to burst into sand himself.

Rasetsu stopped the attack and chose the time to pull his chains back into his sleeves.

The real Gaara rose out from the sand stared evilly at the puppet. Before he could say anything, Rasetsu called out,

"This little fight of ours will have to come to an end, for I fear that it will turn into too big of a battle. I also don't wish for you to see any more of my attacks, while if feel like I've already seen most of yours. I will take my leave now, good bye."

With that, Rasetsu threw several smoke bombs on the roof, and when the smoke cleared, both he and Koutetsu were gone.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later, Streets of Suna_

Trying to save time, Koutetsu had quickly gone to the library to pick out a few scrolls, and then he had dashed home and left Rasetsu in his apartment. While he was running, he kept thinking about how he should be able to travel faster. He had yet to be able to master the shunshin, which he was going to work on next along with trying to be able to control his puppets from a farther distance, so he was thinking of a better way to travel.

_Maybe I could find a way to travel_ in _a puppet! I'm sure I could move faster if I was using chakra instead of my actual muscles. But then again, maybe I could make a puppet that I could _ride _on, like a large bird or something!_

Now, he walked up to Matsuri's apartment, and knocked on the door.

"Just a moment!" Matsuri's voice called out from inside.

Koutetsu sighed and leaned against the wall of the building, waiting for his friend to come out.

When she did, he was somewhat surprised to see her in a new outfit. She was still wearing her tan skirt, but she was wearing a tank top blue shirt instead, without her scarf.

She walked up to him and appeared to be closely inspecting him.

"You're not Rasetsu, are you?" she asked, looking curiously at him.

"Maybe," Koutetsu teased, pleased that even his best friend couldn't tell the difference between him and his puppet.

"Just to make sure…" Matsuri said to herself, while she stepped closer to Koutetsu. She put a hand on his cheek to make sure that it was real skin.

Koutetsu's face slightly heated up and Matsuri smiled when she felt the real skin.

"Okay, I know it's really you, Koutetsu!" she mocked, "'cause puppets can't blush!"

Koutetsu 'hn'ed and turned around, facing the wall.

"I'm definitely _not _blushing!" he claimed. "I just had to rush here so that I could make it in time, that's all!"

Matsuri giggled as she grabbed his hand and led him to the stairs of the building, leading to the exit.

"Okay, suuure!" she said, still giggling at him. "So where are you going to take me out to eat?" she asked him, curious as to what his plans were.

Koutetsu shook his head, thinking were she was going with this.

"Hey, don't think of this as a date!" he warned her, shaking his hands in front of her. "And I hope you brought your own money because I'm not paying for you either!"

Matsuri grabbed his arm and gave him her best puppy eyes.

"Ahh, pwease?" she begged him. "The guy is always supposed to pay on the first date!"

Koutetsu rolled his eyes and mumbled as they stepped out onto the streets,

"Geez, I should've used my puppet instead."

"Hey I heard that!" Matsuri chided back.

________________________________________________________________________

_Streets of Suna_

"Um, are you ever gonna tell me where are we going?" Matsuri asked again, walking next to Koutetsu.

"Breakfast," was all Koutetsu said as he continued to walk forward.

Matsuri pouted but didn't ask anything more.

Upon arriving at the restaurant of Koutetsu's choice, Matsuri's eyes went wide with wonder. The restaurant was located in the rich district of Suna. Matsuri, coming from a poor family, and not having much money after her parents died, never went to restaurants such as this one, which looked stunning.

When they entered the restaurant, there was a large waiting room with people sitting down, waiting for their spots. Koutetsu turned to Matsuri and asked her to stay there for a moment. When he walked to the front where there was a fancy looking person with a list, he asked the main waiter, who was letting people in,

"Excuse me sir, where are the best seats in this restaurant?"

The waiter cleared his throat and then he said with a strong rich accent,

"Why, that would have to be the seats on the roof, monsieur."

Koutetsu nodded.

"Well, I would like to take a seat there for two-"

The waiter interrupted him, something that was becoming a peeve to Koutetsu.

"Well, let me see right here…" he said, flipping through his clipboard papers. "Ah! I'm terribly sorry, young sir, but there are no available seats there, as someone _rich_ has already reserved it!"

Koutetsu, thinking quickly, responded.

"Well, what time is their reservation for?"

The man, who was wearing a monocle, said,

"Well, it seems that they plan to eat here in around three hours."

Koutetsu, faking his angry, raised his voice slightly and said,

"What?! Three hours?! I don't believe you!"

The man, somewhat offended, turned his clipboard around and pointed to where it was written.

"You see here, boy?! The clipboard never lies, and clearly it says that there _is _a reservation for noon!"

Koutetsu quickly scanned the clipboard, more focused on reading the names of the people instead of needing to see proof.

_Hmm, reservation for two, Mr. and Mrs. Sarutonfa…_

"Fine. I guess I'll just have to come back for lunch then."

With that, he left back to Matsuri, with a big mischievous grin on his face.

Matsuri, seeing that he was up to no good, asked him,

"How long are we supposed to wait? What are you up to?"

Koutetsu grabbed her hand and led her out of the restaurant.

"We actually don't have to wait! Follow my lead!"

When they were outside of the restaurant and out of view, Koutetsu used a henge and transformed himself into a man in his twenties who looked rich. It actually looked like Koutetsu, though he was much older, and richer.

Matsuri stared at him like he was crazy, but he encouraged her.

"Come on! Transform into a lady my age that's my age!"

Matsuri sighed but eventually she formed a hand-seal and henge'd into what she might look like when she was twenty-three.

Koutetsu took a moment to admire the beautiful woman in a fancy kimono and finally he said,

"Wow. You actually look pretty nice, Matsuri!"

She giggled and grabbed his arm and led him back to the restaurant.

"Well now I guess we're on a real date!"

Koutetsu shook his head but smiled as they walked back into the restaurant. They walked up to the fancy waiter once more, and he didn't notice them!

"Excuse me, how may I be of service to you two?" he politely asked.

Koutetsu cleared his throat and in a lower voice, he said,

"I am Mr. Sarutonfa and I believe I made a reservation for two at 12:00, but we had a change of plans and I'm wondering if we can go and eat up there now."

The waiter furiously flipped through his notebook and erased the previous reservation and motioned them to the stairs at the back of the restaurant.

"Of course, Sarutonfa-sama! We'll have waiters for you two right away!"

Koutetsu smiled and nodded, and with Matsuri still giggling and holding on tightly to his arm, they walked to the back of the restaurant and up the stairs to the roof.

The roof of this large and famous restaurant lied above the fifth floor. There was about five tables set up, all which had beautiful views of the village.

Matsuri stared in wonder at the village around her, never before seeing such a good view of it.

When Matsuri and Gaara sat down, they dispelled the henge's and returned to their normal selves. Immediately after, a waiter came up and poured a glass of water for him and Matsuri and set down the menus. Afterwards, the waiter asked Koutetsu,

"Are you two paying together, or separately?" nodding in the direction of Matsuri.

Koutetsu frowned thoughtfully, and Matsuri suddenly realized actually _didn't _bring any money with her. How could she have forgotten?! How was she going to eat?! How-

Koutetsu interrupted her thoughts as he smiled at the waiter and said,

"Yes, I will be paying for her as well," he stated, picking up his glass of water and sipping it.

Matsuri's face instantly brightened with joy and appreciation as the waiter bowed to her and handed her the menu.

________________________________________________________________________

_Weeks Later_

Koutetsu stood with his arms folded across his chest, staring down the wooden dummy nearly a hundred feet away from him. He was surrounded by three of the wooden enemies, all equally placed apart from him. He closed his eyes and slowly clapped his hands together forming the palm-seal, gathering his chakra. In the past few weeks, Koutetsu had found out a way to seal Rasetsu in a scroll and always carry him around. Now he wanted to test his powers in training, to see how it would feel.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and he pulled a scroll out of his ninja pouch. He opened it and spread it through the air so that it unraveled, revealing that it had the kanji of 'seal' on it. Immediately after, his puppet Rasetsu poofed into existence and at insane speeds it flew toward one of the wooden dummies. Before it reached the wooden enemy, its mouth opened and a gas bomb flew out of it, causing purple smoke to cover the area. Twitching his fingers, Koutetsu set is puppet into the smoke to attack the dummy.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed a Rasetsu with two blades coming out of the bottom of his wrists and a dummy that was completely cut up into pieces.

Turing around, Koutetsu then formed a series of quick seals landing on the horse seal.

"_Lightening Release: Electrical Explosion!_"

He bent his knees and faces his palms together at the side of his waist, his fingertips already sparking with lightning. Converting his chakra into lightning, a ball of electrical energy began growing between his palms until it was about two times the size of a baseball. Then, pushing his palms forward, the electrical ball flew forward at high speeds until it hit the dummy, creating a small explosion of electricity. The wooden dummy, so charged with energy, exploded and electricity branched out reaching ten meters all around the dummy. Not only would this B-ranked lightning technique do damage to one person, but it would explode with electricity and anybody within a ten meter radius of the person or object it would be severely injured or at least hurt.

Turning around to the last dummy, Koutetsu smiled as he prepared his favorite and invented lightning technique. After his fight with Gaara, he thought of how useful it was to send powerful electricity through his metal chains. Using that idea, he created his own technique using the same idea.

He held his right had out toward the wooden dummy, quickly sending his invisible chakra strings out to it. He used all five fingers on the dummy; on chakra string attacked to one arm, another string to the other arm, two strings for both of the legs, and one string on the torso.

Lifting his hand into the air, the dummy was yanked out of the sand and floated up to where Koutetsu's hand was pointing, being pulled by the chakra strings until it stayed stationary about tem meters in the air.

Using his left hand, Koutetsu quickly formed about five one-handed seals that he had researched. With the last one, his right hand sparked with electricity (similar to when Kakashi forms the Chidori) and he grabbed his right wrist with the charged hand.

"_Lightning Release: Electric Funeral!_"

The lightning from his left hand transferred to his right hand, and it instantly traveled up through the chakra strings to the wooden dummy, causing it to ignite with lightning.

The wooden dummy was continuously electrocuted until, just like the last one, it overcharged and exploded.

Koutetsu smiled as he congradulated himself for mastering the techniques. He had invented his last jutsu, though he did partially steal the idea from Gaara, who had used _sand funeral _on his puppet, Rasetsu. The idea of immobilizing an opponent with one technique and then using another technique that went with it to finish them off intrigued Koutetsu so, he decided to make his own version of it. Not only that, but he also-

His thought process immediately stopped as he sensed a spike of chakra to his right. Not waiting to be attacked, he reconnected his chakra strings with his left hand to Rasetsu and sent him underground, sending him toward the enemy.

With his right hand he quickly summoned his other puppet, the one that was a copy of Matsuri, who he named Saishi, (A/N: both Matsuri and Saishi mean 'festival') and sent her toward the intruder, who he couldn't see from this distance.

The attacker managed to evade his puppet, and he or she jumped high into the air, so that the sun was behind him or her, causing the intruder to look like a shadow.

Koutetsu wasn't done attacking with Saishi. He twitched one of his fingers, causing a circle on both Saishi's palms to open up, firing senbon at the enemy.

The surprised enemy was hit, though for when the senbons came in contact, the enemy burst into sand which flew away in the breeze.

Koutetsu's eyes widened as he felt the chakra appear behind him. He jumped in the air, performing a back flip to avoid being kicked…

Only to fall to the ground and face plant when he saw who it was.

"Matsuri, what the hell are you attacking me for?!" he yelled at her when he got up.

The brown-haired girl giggled and pulled out her jouhyou.

"Well we got let out of the Academy early today and I thought I would have a friendly sparring match with my best buddy the puppeteer!"

Koutetsu sighed in annoyance.

"I was aiming to _kill_! You could've got hurt!"

Matsuri only giggled more at this.

"Well then I guess that you weren't _good _enough to hurt me!"

At this Koutetsu became really annoyed, but he decided not to argue more.

"Anyway, how did you make that sand clone? I didn't know that you knew how to make it!"

Matsuri let her guard down for a moment as she explained.

"I didn't make a sand clone! I have _wind_ chakra, silly!" she reminded him. "I only substituted myself with the sand before you hit!"

Koutetsu nodded.

Suddenly, the sand behind Matsuri burst into the air as Rasetsu appeared out of the ground behind her, putting his arm around her.

"I would have had you eventually," he whispered in her ear, grinning widely. Koutetsu had really wanted to make this puppet look exactly like him; so yes, it could even smile.

Matsuri put her own arm around the puppet.

"Hey! There's my other best buddy, Rasetsu!"

Trying to be funny, she leaned forward, closed her eyes and kissed the puppet on the cheek. However, she froze in the middle of it and her eyes snapped open as she felt…

…real skin!

Her face started turning red as Koutetsu turned his head and looked at her, grinning.

"A real puppeteer should be able to instantly switch with one of his puppets!"

Matsuri continued blushing, though she eventually snapped out of it and took her arm off of Koutetsu, turning away from him, trying to hide her blush.

"H-Hey, that's not fair!" she told him. "You don't deserve a kiss from me yet!"

Koutetsu raised one eyebrow on his face in curiosity.

"Yet?" he asked, still smiling.

Matsuri blushed even more and started walking away.

"Come on, let's just have lunch already, I'm getting hungry!"

Koutetsu rolled his eyes and followed his friend, hungry himself.

________________________________________________________________________

_Months Later, Koutetsu's House, Night_

Koutetsu had turned nine-years-old a while ago, but today was Matsuri's birthday and she would finally be the same age as her best friend.

They had spent the entire day together. Luckily, it was a Saturday so Matsuri didn't have to attend the Academy. They had just finished eating a meal that Koutetsu and Matsuri had fun making together. Since Koutetsu had treated her out to lunch, they had decided to cook something together for dinner. While their teamwork hadn't been that great, it had been a hell of an experience, and Matsuri had had so much fun.

Now, they were lying on Koutetsu's apartment roof, staring at the moon and stars together. Koutetsu had yet to give her his presents, and he was about to give them to her now.

"Matsuri-chan," he said to her, turning away from the sky to look at her.

"Hmm?" she responded, turning to look at him as well. She had been having the greatest day of her life, and she had completing forgotten that he hadn't even given her a present.

"Well, instead of buying something for you, I decided to make a few things for your birthday," he told her, sitting up. Being ever the craftsman, and having a large resource of wood and other tools, (the puppet warehouse), Koutetsu had thought that making something would be better for her.

Now Matsuri also sat up, getting excited.

"Oooh, really!?" she asked, wondering what her had gotten her.

He pulled out a scroll, the one that he had sealed her gifts inside, and laid it out behind him so she couldn't see.

"Don't look now, I want you to be surprised!" he requested, turning to make sure she didn't look.

Matsuri nodded and closed her eyes shut tight, already getting very excited.

He unsealed his gifts, and he presented held the first one out to her.

"Open your eyes now," he whispered to her, waiting to she her reaction.

When she did open her eyes, she was shocked to see her present. In the hands that Koutetsu was holding out was a brand new and masterful looking jouhyou, one that looked much better than her old one she had borrowed from the Academy.

"I wanted you to have your own," Koutetsu explained, "so the local blacksmith helped me make you a new one. It took a while to learn and actually make one, but I think that it turned out fine."

Matsuri was speechless as she thought about how much time he must have spent to make it, and how much it would cost if she were to but it at a store.

"Close your eyes again!" Koutetsu told her, before she could start thanking him.

Another present?! Matsuri felt butterflies in her stomach as she thought about what the next present could possibly be.

"Open your eyes!"

When Matsuri opened her eyes, she was surprised once more to find a simple necklace that was beautiful in her eyes.

The necklace was just a simple string, but on the end of the string was carved wooden shape, in the form of a thin hexagon. On the hexagon there was a kanji strange kanji that Matsuri couldn't recognize.

Before he allowed her to take it, he showed her the best part about the necklace. He pushed it in, and then he twisted it diagonally before doing another twist, resulting in the shape of a heart.

The kanji that she couldn't read before now read 'best friends'. He pushed the top of the heart to the side, revealing a small photo of her and Koutetsu smiling together at the camera.

Tears threatened to burst out f her eyes as she took the present. She pushed it back to the way it had first been before, without Koutetsu's help, and then she placed it around her neck.

"Happy birthday!" Koutetsu said to her, grinning at her. "So what do you think about the necklace. Believe it or not, it was a lot harder to make than the jouhyou. It took me _weeks_ justto be able to plan out how to make it, and then if took me-"

He was sharply cut off as Matsuri pulled him into a big hug, crying into his shoulder.

Koutetsu smiled to himself now as he returned the hug, happy that she liked the gifts and was having a great birthday.

________________________________________________________________________

_Month Later, Kazekage's Office_

The Kazekage of Suna smiled evilly to himself as he politely said goodbye to the daimyo's wife that was leaving his office. The daimyo's wife was a cruel woman in his opinion, which meant a lot, considering that he sacrificed his wife to seal an already controlled demon in his son, purposely making the sealing weak so that the demon would give more powers to Gaara, causing the boy not being able to sleep.

The daimyo wished to adopt a…girl from his village, claiming that they wanted a new child. But he knew better. The only reason they wanted to adopt a girl was so that they could use her as their own personal _slave_, free of charge.

A clever plan, but cruel none the less.

Oh well, the Kazekage really couldn't give a damn at how cruel other people were. They had offered him a _large _amount of money, so with a good conscious he was able to sell out a girl on his list that didn't have parents, and who was the age that the wife required.

He had signed over a girl named Matsuri.

It was somewhat of a loss to him, he supposed, because the instructors gave him a report that the girl was by far the top of her class, and she trained harder than anyone else and was deadly with all typed of weapons, especially the jouhyou, but it really didn't matter to him.

It wasn't that big of a loss.

On the other hand, Orochimaru, the Otokage (?) from the new Sound Village had just offered him if he wanted a part in destroying the Leaf Village.

He had accepted.

Speaking of the Leaf Village, the Hokage would be visiting his village in a couple of weeks to on an annual trip to discuss terms of their treaty and other things. That would be interesting…

________________________________________________________________________

_Matsuri's House, That Night_

When Matsuri opened her letter that she had found in the mail, she had been expecting another prank letter from Koutetsu, but instead, she had found it was…

An order from the Kazekage.

She was assigned an 'S-Class Mission'.

She was going to be adopted by a daimyo.

And she wouldn't be able to see Koutetsu…again…ever.

Her first reaction was to start crying. And cry she did. It wasn't until minutes later that she had the reason to go and tell Koutetsu what was going to happen.

________________________________________________________________________

_Koutetsu' House_

Instead of screaming, like Matsuri had expected Koutetsu to do, he sat down on his couch after hearing the news lost in thought.

Matsuri sat on the couch next to him and cried herself to sleep as a single tear rolled down Koutetsu's face, his shaking hand still clutching onto Matsuri's letter.

Tomorrow at noon, he would lose his best friend.

________________________________________________________________________

_Next Morning_

Matsuri had slept on Koutetsu that night, and when they woke up together, she started crying again.

He had stayed up late last night, only getting about an hour of sleep, thinking about what was going to happen.

It was just like when he lost his leg; one moment, everything is okay, and the next moment, your life is changed.

One moment, he was planning to tell Matsuri that he had fallen in love with her, and that he liked her much more than a best friend. The next moment, she had to leave him.

He had laughed bitterly as he thought how cruel his life was going to be.

When she had started crying again in the morning, he had held on tightly to her hand.

"Shh," he whispered to her, trying to get her to stop. "Everything is going to turn out all right, Matsuri."

She shook her head not believing him.

"I don't want to leave you!" she cried, completely miserable. "I don't want to!"

Koutetsu sighed.

"I know. I don't want to leave you, but it's the Kazekage's orders. Please listen Matsuri! I know that you will have to leave soon, but until then, let's enjoy the time we have together!"

She gripped on to his hand tighter and she pulled him into a hug.

"Everything will turn out all right, Matsuri. I won't let go of you until we have to."

________________________________________________________________________

_Noon_

In the front of the village, Matsuri and Koutetsu stood on a nearby roof as they prepared to depart. True to his word, Koutetsu had been holding on to her hand since morning. In the few moments they had together before they had to part, they had been silent, just enjoying each other's company. They could see the wife of the daimyo and the Kazekage standing at the front of the village.

Suddenly, Matsuri turned away from the front of the village, and she faced Koutetsu with a pleading look on her face.

"I-I change my mind!" she said, trying to keep her voice down so that the Kazekage wouldn't see them. "I don't want to go with that lady. Let's…let's run away together!" she whispered, looking deep into his eyes.

Running away.

Koutetsu had thought about that option, he had thought about where they would go, and what they would do if they left. Not much seemed good, there was no way…

He stopped his thought as he looked into her pleading eyes. They were begging him to say yes.

What could he do? How could he possibly betray his best friend and let her leave him.

With a cold resolve in his eyes, he looked at Matsuri and said,

"I have a plan,"

________________________________________________________________________

_Suna_

The Kazekage grinned evilly as he saw Koutetsu and a miserable looking Matsuri walking toward him, holding hands.

Before they approached them, he saw them hug, with Koutetsu whispering a few things in her ear. The girl nodded her head and wiped her tears away trying to be strong.

With that, Matsuri approached the Kazekage and the daimyo's wife.

"Good! I'm glad to see that you made it, Matsuri!" the evil man said, pretending to be friendly.

Matsuri gave a fake smile back at him and walked next to the lady.

"Hello, darling, I'm the daimyo's wife, but you may call me Madame Matsurama."

Matsuri nodded.

After a few words together with the Kazekage, a carriage pulled up next to the entrance and Madame Matsurama stepped into it, motioning for Matsuri to do the same.

Matsuri took one last sad glance at Koutetsu, and she stepped into the carriage. The doors closed and the carriage rode off.

The Kazekage laughed cruelly as he saw her ride off and he saw Koutetsu run way.

What he didn't see was the shadow clone that the real Koutetsu had made, the one hiding on the roof, controlling both Rasetsu and Saishi with a grin on his face.

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere_

The real Koutetsu and Matsuri were standing on Koutetsu's apartment building roof, already having packed everything Matsuri needed and also everything Koutetsu needed.

"A-Are you sure this is going to work?" Matsuri asked him nervously, continuously looking behind her. "Once the Kazekage finds out about this, he's gonna send Anbu after us, and-"

"Relax," Koutetsu interrupted. "I've been working on this things for while now. I've tried it out and I've fixed the problems."

Matsuri nodded and tried to calm down, taking a deep breath. She could feel every heart beat pulsing through her body.

Koutetsu pulled out a special scroll, and when he sealed it, at large wooden hawk appeared on the roof before them.

There were two seats, one closest to the wooden bird's neck and one behind.

"Take a seat," Koutetsu told her.

She nodded her head and sat down in the seat in the back.

Koutetsu then sat in the front seat, taking his own deep breath to calm him down. Using all ten fingers for precaution, he connected the strings in all the right places.

His thumbs and his pinkies started moving up and down, and then, the bird's wings did the same. Using other fingers, he made the hawk stand up and walk over the edge of the building.

Matsuri was clearly nervous, and he was as well.

Turning around to her, he had to speak louder to be heard over the loud sound of the flapping waves.

"We're gonna fly out of here together Matsuri! Away from Suna! We'll never come back! It'll be just the two of us! I won't let them take you!"

Matsuri was now crying tears of joy as she hugged Koutetsu from behind. They shared eye contact for a moment, and then the hawk crouched down, wings high in the air.

Then, with a gush of wind swung down from the wings, the bird jumped off of the building floating in the air.

The bird quickly fell to the ground, but Koutetsu was able to pull it up in time. Using its wings to flap, the bird gained height.

With the borders of Suna in sight, both of the runaways' confidence grew. Freedom…

Soaring on the wings of the hawk, they made it past the border, but suddenly…

The hawk was pulled back and started shaking.

Looking behind him, Koutetsu's eyes widened in shock when he saw a large and long hand made of _sand _coming out of the desert floor, holding on to the end of his puppet.

Looking farther back, Koutetsu saw somebody standing on the border, holding up their hand to the puppet.

Gaara!!

The red-haired boy threw his hand to the ground, and knowing what came next, Koutetsu quickly grabbed Matsuri and jumped high into the air.

The arm of sand then threw the puppet hawk to the ground, throwing up a large pile of sand into the air.

Meanwhile, Matsuri and Koutetsu landed on the sand, freaking out about what was going to happen next.

When the sand cloud cleared, Koutetsu looked up to Gaara and cried out,

"Gaara of the Desert! Whatever is between you and me, let it go now! Leave us be!"

Gaara, still holding an emotion-less face, walking closer to the two.

"The Kazekage warned me to watch you and see if you tried to escape with a girl at noon. He told me to capture the girl, and bring her to him."

Koutetsu's eyes widened again as his brain went on overdrive trying to find out what he could do.

Running away in a desert…it was suicide! The desert was Gaara's playground; he would easily be able to defeat them!

Kuso!

Suddenly, Matsuri screamed and he turned over to her to see what was happening.

Sand was covering her legs, and Gaara was holding his hand out once more.

"Matsuri!"

Before Koutetsu could grab her, she was yanked to the ground and quickly dragged toward Gaara. When she reached him, she was held in a floating prison of sand next to him.

With that, Gaara turned around and began walking away.

Koutetsu, with fury in his eyes, dashed toward the two, but before he could cover any distance, Gaara turned around and with a swing of his hand, a _giant _wave propelled toward Koutetsu, knocking him painfully to the ground.

_________________________________________________________________________Later_

Koutetsu woke up in the middle of the desert, quickly jumping up and dashing toward the entrance of Suna, forgetting about his hawk puppet.

He jumped across the border of Suna, and he hurriedly sprinted to the front.

When he made it, he saw the Kazekage, Gaara, and Matsuri standing once more in the front with the same lady from before. The Kazekage seemed to be apologizing to the lady for the inconvenience.

When Koutetsu ran up to the group, he ignored the warning of the Kazekage and the evil glare Gaara was giving him, and ran straight up to Matsuri, grabbing her in an embrace.

She cried into him for the last time, and he held her with tears in his own eyes.

Eventually, the lady stepped into the carriage again and the Kazekage ordered Matsuri to follow her.

Koutetsu pulled his face back so that he could look Matsuri in the eyes for a moment.

"Matsuri…" he said, noticing the deep fear and sadness that was pulsing through her eyes, "I'm going to come for you! I'm going to grow strong, and then I will run away from this village and save you! Because…I love you Matsuri!"

Before he could kiss her, the Kazekage grabbed her and threw her into the carriage, slamming the door on her.

Before the carriage rolled away, Koutetsu was able to see her face through the window, mouthing the words…

_I love you too._

________________________________________________________________________

_One Year Later, Suna_

Koutetsu had at first thought that he would have been banished from Suna, after trying to run away with Matsuri. But the Kazekage wouldn't even allow him that pleasure. The _evil _man had realized that staying in Suna without Matsuri was more of a punishment than leaving. He couldn't become a ninja, and Matsuri wasn't there to be with him…

This place was hell.

Now, Koutetsu was ten-years-old, and he believed that he had acquired all he could from this terrible village. He had created more of his own puppets, at least one for every situation. He had invented a way to be able to control a puppet from more than a mile away. He had also invented a series of very small puppets, the size of the bugs renowned in the Aburame Clan, and he had made his very own special poison.

What had really interested him was his research of a very special puppeteer, one by the name of Sasori Akasuna. The man who created human puppets and was banished from Suna. He was an S-ranked ninja, the top of his league. Koutetsu would seek him out, and he would become his sensei.

Gaara…

He would eventually kill that bastard.

The boy had ruined his life. He had first crippled him. Then he had stopped him and Matsuri from escaping together and having their 'happy ever after'.

The Kazekage…

He would die as well.

Koutetsu was at least at the level of a Jonin now, but he was still not strong enough to kill the Kage. That is why he would seek out Sasori.

Right now, he was walking down the streets of Suna in the evening. He passed the flower shop, and decided to stop in.

When he entered, he was greeted by the silver-haired girl…who was _Gaara's _new friend. After Konoha had stopped by to Suna, a silver-haired girl who Koutetsu had never seen before appeared in the village and seemingly befriended the demon.

"Welcome to our flower shop!" the girl called out. "My name is Kairi, is there anything I can help you with?"

Koutetsu shook his head.

"No thank you. I would just like to pick out something myself."

He walked around for about thirty minutes, observing the different types of flowers, and testing himself on which he knew could be used for poison.

"Excuse me," Kairi said to him. "But, the shop is closing now. Is there anything you would like to buy?"

Koutetsu picked up a red rose and brought it to the counter. He paid the correct for it and then began walking out of the shop.

Kairi locked up the shop, and headed out behind him. Before she could start walking back to Gaara's house though, Koutetsu told her.

"Oh, make sure when you see Gaara to tell him that his best buddy Koutetsu says 'hi'."

Kairi stopped and turned around, surprised to find out that the stranger knew that she lived with Gaara.

But the boy was…gone.

_Gaara's Apartment  
_______________________________________________________________________________

Gaara's eyes widened when Kairi told him the message.

"Kairi," he warned her, with a very serious and worried tone in his voice. "It is _very _important that you run away if you ever see that guy again, understood?"

Kairi was confused.

"Why would I run away?"

"Before I met you…I wasn't the nicest guy around," he explained. "I made a lot of enemies, and many people hated me-"

"But it's not you're fault that they hated you, right?" she asked.

Gaara shook his head.

"This guy has every reason to hate me. And he even said that he would kill me eventually."

Kairi was shocked.

"Why would he want to kill you?"

Gaara looked to the side, guilty.

"Because I crushed his right leg, prohibiting him from being a ninja…and I took his best friend away from him."

Kairi was shocked to hear this.

"Well, why don't you go and say sorry before it's too late?"

"I…I don't think he would accept my apology."

________________________________________________________________________

_Koutetsu's Apartment_

When Koutetsu got home, he greeted his best friend.

"Matsuri, I'm home!" he bitterly called out. "And I got something for you!"

Twitching his fingers, Saishi, the puppet of Matsuri walked out of the kitchen and smiled at him.

"I…I got you a rose, my love," Koutetsu told her, putting the rose in a case on the table.

The puppet smiled at him and gave him a hug.

"I love you, Matsuri," Koutetsu sadly told his puppet, giving her a small kiss on the lips.

"And you and I will be together again, soon."

________________________________________________________________________

_Months Later_

"Are you ready," a gravely voice called out to him, from the darkness in the streets.

Koutetsu smiled bitterly and pulled his dark hood over his face.

"Yes…Sasori-sensei."

The two cloaked puppeteers then walked out of the Sand Village together, leaving behind them two dead guards and a village full of misery.

________________________________________________________________________

_End of Arc_

Twelve-year-old Koutetsu was walking away from the Village Hidden in the Clouds with his sensei. The puppet master had promised that he would eventually allow Koutetsu to retrieve his best friend, but that moment had yet to come.

Koutetsu had truly grown powerful with Sasori. He had as much potential as his master had when he was his age; why else would Sasori agree to train him? He knew that he was stronger than Gaara right now. The time would come for him to have his revenge and to save his friend.

Suddenly, Sasori stopped and held his hand out in front of Koutetsu.

"That puddle of water shouldn't be here…it hasn't rained recently, has it?"

Koutetsu nodded as he observed the puddle ten meters in front of them. Suddenly, the puddle started moving and the water began crawling up, forming the shape of a human.

Then, the water solidified and turned into an actual human, wearing a black robe with red clouds.

"Is this Akatsuki?" Koutetsu asked his sensei, forming his fighting stance.

"Yes. Be prepared to fight."

Rain smiled as he looked at his two opponents.

"Good, good! I'm glad that capturing you wouldn't be easy! But Pain, I didn't know that this guy has an apprentice!"

In an orange flash, another robed Akatsuki appeared next to the first. This one had strange orange eyes that matched his hair, with spirals in them.

"Yes, that is interesting. But I believe that the Leader would accept the boy as an Akatsuki trainee."

Sasori interrupted their casual conversation.

"I assume that you two are stronger than the last man sent to kill me, correct?"

Rain laughed at him.

"Of course! You have no idea! This guy has several jutsu that could kill all of us in one move, that's how strong he is!" he said, pointing at Pain.

Pain ignored the compliment and asked Sasori,

"If you fight us, you will lose. Knowing this, do you wish to come to our organization peacefully or come with us beaten up, on the verge of death?" Pain asked, emotionless.

Sasori chuckled.

"We'll come with a fight, of course. Why would I join an organization if everyone is weaker than me, anyway?"

Pain nodded.

"Very well. I will show you the power of the Rinnegan!"

________________________________________________________________________

_End_

A/N: Well, I planned to cover the entire trip of Naruto going to Kumo, but this chapter is already over 55 pages on word, and I've never seen chapters this big anyway. So I split the chapter in two, making this the first part. The second part will come out soon; I'm already working on it.

Does anybody remember back in chapter 5 when I talked about Matsuri? Read this:

_The two Kages that were in the office were now sitting and chatting lightly because their business had been finished. The Kazekage was talking about how he just signed an adoption form from a daimyo._

"_Which child did the daimyo end up choosing?" Sarutobi asked, not really interested however._

_The Kazekage took a sip of his tea as he replied. "A young orphan girl by the name of Matsuri. About three weeks ago they left to-"_

I wrote that small part there, more focused on Gaara then, but now you know the story of what happened to her.

Anyway, no power levels or Omake for this part, but I have one planned out for part two. Next part will be covering the trip to Kumo for Naruto _as well_ as where I left off at chapter six. That's right, I will be finishing off what's happening to Gaara who is about to face Orochimaru and Kimimaro!

Thank you to all who reviewed put me in their favorites or alert lists! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

-williams5505


	9. A Treaty of Peace: Part 2

Thank you for moving on! This is still the last year of the Academy before our friends become Genin! This chapter will continue where the last one left off. Then, Naruto and his group will be traveling to Kumo to deliver the peace treaty!

Kingswriter: Thanks for the review. You review really early; you're always one of the first to read the chapter!

anotamous: **Yep, chapter six was a flash forward**, so that we could all know what would happen to Gaara after Naruto and his friends left. There will be parts of chapter six in this chapter also, I'm trying to piece together the end of the Academy years and connect chapter six to the later chapters. Long chapters are great, in my opinion too. Also, if readers don't like reading long chapters, they can stop in the middle of the chapter, and come back and read the rest later whenever they want to. But if people like long chapters and the chapters aren't long, then they aren't satisfied and they have to wait until the next update.

GravityTheWIZARD: Gaara _was _a monster! After he met Kairi, he started to change into a better person. Too bad for Koutetsu though; he only knew Gaara before he changed.

Rena: Thanks for the review! Roku does know about his Bijuu, though. Because Kumo is the only village that doesn't hate its Jinchuuriki, there's no reason to hide the truth from him. Also, he has two chakra elements, _earth _and _fire_, while those of the Korochi Clan only have the chakra element of _earth_. Thanks about the OCs. They will become an important part of the story later, which is why I introduced them now. I know its Kishimoto's style to only tell the past of characters right before they are killed, but I decided to do the opposite. Konan is right about Pain; he really is becoming more detached, and more like a god, rather than a human.

Whispers12: Thank you. Naruto will begin working on his mastery of other elements when he leaves the village.

Godschildtweety: Thanks for the reviews! I had to double take my iPod touch when it said that I had another eight reviews!

litewarior4: Thanks! I always thought that my imagination was pretty clear, and I'm glad that you like the story so far.

think-pink-jess: Here's the next update! Thank you for reviewing!

Lets Begin!

Chapter 9: A Treaty of Peace: Part 2

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________________

_Kumo_

Pain and Rain stood before Sasori and Koutetsu. Their two opponents were tensed up, but the two Akatsuki couldn't seem more relaxed. Before he made a move, Pain closed his eyes and pushed large amounts of chakra into them, to bring them to full power.

"Very well. I will show you the power of the Rinnegan!" he shouted, opening his eyes.

Sasori, inside of Hiruko, was unaffected by the minor genjutsu the Rinnegan automatically cast when at full power, but Koutetsu was momentarily dazed as he looked into the spiral eyes.

Pain placed both of his palms together, forcing massive amounts of orange chakra into them.

"_Shinra Tensei!!_"

Before the blast initiated, spiral ripples of air formed around his palm, signaling the effect of the change in the gravitational force.

Suddenly, a large explosion of vertical force propelled toward the two enemies, cutting through the air.

Sasori was able to jump to the side in time, but Koutetsu, still somewhat dazed, barely avoided the head on blast, and jumped away with the side of the attack skimming his leg.

Even though he was barely touched, and even though he actually dodged the attack, the sheer power of the force caused Koutetsu to fly far away into the air, further back up the trail.

"Should I deal with the boy?" Rain asked, turning toward his partner.

Pain shook his head.

"No, let him come to us. The boy is _lightning _natured; he may actually be able to harm you."

Rain chuckled but obeyed the command none the less.

When Sasori landed, he threw out several large poison bombs towards the two ninja. But before it could reached them, Rain went through three signature hand-seals and shouted out,

"_Water Style: Giant Water Fall Jutsu!_"

The bombs exploded near the two, but before the gas could do any damage, water, seemingly appearing from no where, began to spiral around them, creating a _large _shield. The gas was pushed away by the water, not harming either of them.

Inside the circle, Rain the pushed his palms forward, causing a massive jet of water, the size of a waterfall, to rush toward the direction of Sasori.

The water pulse was so big, that by the time Sasori jumped high in the air, the river that had formed was still gushing below him. Rain and Pain were still protected with the spiraling shield of water.

However, before Sasori could land in the deadly water, a large wooden and painted falcon flew quickly from further behind the mountain, and he landed safely on the bird.

Pain hummed to himself as he realized what this meant.

_No chakra came out from Sasori to control the bird. The bird seems to be real, but I can see that it is fake. That means that his apprentice seems to be a puppeteer as well. That, as well as-_

His thoughts were interrupted as Koutetsu shunshined into the air above him, going through several hand-seals, shouting out,

"_Lightning Release: Electrical Explosion!_"

The boy then sent a ball of sparking electricity down toward the two at a fast pace, causing Pain to warn his partner,

"Get out of the water!"

The two shunshined away as well, and when the electric ball hit the ground where they once were, it branched out, its electricity reaching the walls of the water wall, spreading all throughout the entire water.

In the air, Nagato quickly went threw hand-seals, shouting out,

"_Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!_"

A large cloud of smoke appeared in the air, and before it could fade away, a giant drill-beaked bird flew out of it, with Pain riding on top. Flying with insane speeds, it quickly headed toward Sasori, who was now controlling the wooden bird.

Pain's drill-beaked bird quickly out-flew the puppet one and its large beak destroyed it on contact.

Sasori, in air, sent his scorpion tail down toward Nagato, who was able to dodge it, though it hit his summon instead. The summon quickly poofed out of existence, and both Pain and Sasori fell to the ground where the water had cleared out.

When he stood up, Pain stared into the eyes of his enemy.

"I'll get you out of that puppet soon enough, Sasori."

Hiruko took a look of surprise on his face.

"So you know that I'm in a puppet? Those eyes…the Rinnegan! They truly are amazing, are they not? However, I am sorry to say that your younger brother, Naruto, has quite a stronger pair of eyes than even you!"

Pain's eyes widened as he heard what Sasori had said.

"Stay away from my brother!" he hissed, his Rinnegan eyes zeroing in on him.

Sasori chuckled in his deep and gravely voice.

"Ah! It seems that an evil villain like yourself still manages to hold love for his family. And, it's always nice to know that there is someone precious to you that I can hold ransom if I ever need to!"

Pain stared even deeper into the puppet, with coldness in his eyes.

"I won't give you the chance!" he yelled.

Sasori chuckled again.

"Don't worry. I would never kill the boy; legends say that he is to be the one to save our world from destruction, no?"

Pain mentally started to become weary of the man.

_How much does he know?_

"You seem to know a lot about legends and such, you're quite a knowledgeable man," Pain told him, preparing his chakra. "Then you should remember that the Rinnegan gives its users the ability to transport, and also to mix the elements!"

With that, Pain went through some unknown hand-seals before he yelled out,

"_Ice Style: Ice Pillars!_"

Slamming his palm to the ground, large spikes of ice erupted from the ground in a straight line toward Sasori…

But the puppeteer was able to dodge the attack, jumping high into the air.

While he was still in the air, Pain raised his palm to him and shouted,

"_Bansho Tenin!_"

Sasori was then held stationary in the air, hovering where Pain's palm was pointing.

"_Assaku Sousou!_"

Pain then closed his fist, and Hiruko exploded into pieces of wood and metal, though the shield and the tail were unaffected.

The heavy demon looking shield fell to the ground, but before it hit, the real Sasori flipped around it, making him land on it when it hit the ground.

Eyes half-lidded giving himself a calm expression, Sasori, in a black robe, stood up fully and smiled at Pain.

"Those eyes of yours truly give you wonderful techniques!" he told him.

Pain recognized the evil glint in his eyes. He had seen it before when Orochimaru looked at him or Itachi, or before Orochimaru switched bodies with a powerful victim.

"Yeah, these eyes are pretty nice. It's too bad that they are mine and you will never have them!"

Sasori laughed at him.

"Now why on earth would you assume that I want to have them? And how would I possibly get them?"

Pain grinded his teeth together and formed the _snake _seal with his hands together.

"_Wood Release: Binding Nest!_"

A tree then rapidly grew behind the surprised Sasori; its braches and vines grabbed hold of him, containing him and not letting him move. Eventually, all that was left uncovered by the branches was Sasori's head.

But unlike other ninja, Sasori's head was a weapon itself.

Opening his mouth, Sasori let a jet of water propel directly toward Pain.

Using a minor Shinra Tensei that required no hand seals, Pain's right hand glowed with orange chakra and he swung it outwards to the right, forcing the flow of gravity to follow it. Right before the stream of water hit him, it immediately cut with the new strong flow of gravity, completely avoiding Pain.

However, Sasori used this distraction to break free. Behind him, two blades with more spinning blades on the end appeared out of Sasori's back, ripping through his robes. The two spinners completely shredded through the tree as if it was nothing, leaving Sasori free.

Then, Sasori used his blades to propel toward Pain, engaging him in taijutsu.

Mistake.

It only takes one hit from Pain to be knocked away. With both of his hands glowing orange from an active and different type of Shinra Tensei, he dodged the blades that spun toward him, and punched at Sasori once.

He didn't even hit Sasori, but the puppet man was still projected far back, knocked away from Pain.

Rain was currently searching for Koutetsu, who was hiding somewhere.

"Come out, kiddo! There's no reason why you should have to die!"

Koutetsu was hiding behind a large rock, planning out his next move. Using one of the micro puppets that he had made, which was in the shape of a fly, he connected one string of invisible chakra to it, sending it toward the unaware Rain.

The fly silently flew behind the Akatsuki, landing on his neck. Before Rain could feel what was happening, the fly bit him, sending a paralyzing poison into his body.

Rain's head snapped back as he realized what happened.

Koutetsu stepped out of his hiding spot, walking out on to the trail and confronting Rain.

"My bug puppet that just bit you…you're paralyzed now. And, you should also pass out in about…five seconds."

Instead of worrying, Rain began to laugh.

"That's a pretty useful technique you got their, kid. But against me, poison is meaningless!"

Rain's entire body turned into a silhouette of water. His form remained, but it was all merely aqua. A dark purple liquid could be seen, flowing through the water that was him.

Then, the dark purple poison began to flow up to Rain's hand, so that his entire hand was colored with the poison. Then, the purple liquid merely fell down to the ground as Rain's hand of water fell off. Right after, a new hand of pure water replaced it. Rain then solidified, revealing an unharmed Akatsuki.

"I'm invincible!" Rain claimed, laughing at the kid.

Koutetsu gritted his teeth. Lightning was affective against water; that orange-haired man known as Pain had even warned Rain not to get hit with his electric ball!

Koutetsu flied through several seals, landing on horse, and faced his hands toward Rain while he was still laughing.

"_Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!_"

Lightning branched out from all of his fingertips, multiplying amongst themselves so that a countless number reached Rain.

When the lightning hit Rain, he screamed for a moment before he burst into water, sinking into the ground.

"_That hurt, kid!_" a voice sounded out from under the ground.

Koutetsu mentally smiled to himself. So the man wasn't completely invincible!

Suddenly, another silhouette of water appeared behind Koutetsu, unawares to him.

Rain reached his hand back, forming a sword with the water. He then thrust it forward, into Koutetsu…

Only to break right through the wooden puppet.

The real Koutetsu, still hiding, summoned one of his special puppets and sent it into the ground.

Behind the surprised Rain, a large snake-worm with no eyes erupted from the ground, only to head back into it, crushing the water that was Rain.

Rasetsu, Koutetsu's identical puppet, turned around and prepared himself to fight. Koutetsu would never send himself into a fight first; he would rather fight from the sidelines with caution before he jumped in.

Rain appeared further back, coming out of the ground.

"Kid, you have potential, I'll give you that. I actually think the Leader might let you become a trainee or something!"

Koutetsu then pointed his finger at Rain, saying nothing. He had completely mastered two Lightning Release techniques. Both were invented by him, making them deadly. His first was when he lifted an opponent into the air using chakra strings and then sent electricity toward them. He could now do that without using seals. His second was this.

By merely pointing at Rain, as small area of chakra appeared in the air high above him.

Then, an insanely fast bold of lightning stuck down on Rain, electrocuting him. The technique was not that powerful, but it hurt the opponent at certainly stuns them for a while.

When Koutetsu had pointed at Rain, he had actual connected a string of chakra to him, giving his lightning bolt a place to aim. The actual lightning jutsu that Koutetsu activated without using seals would cause a bolt of lightning to strike down at the marked place.

When Rain recovered from the attack, he actually smiled at Rasetsu.

"Of well, I guess its time to end this fight."

Suddenly, Rasetsu poofed out of existence, as well as the snake-worm below the ground. Behind a rock where the real Koutetsu was hiding, the puppeteer fell unconscious on the ground as Pain stood behind him.

Using his Rinnegan, Pain had projected his teleportation seal onto both Koutetsu and Sasori, without them knowing. Koutetsu had been first, because Pain knew that Sasori had been hiding in a puppet. After Pain had defeated Sasori, which he had rather easily, he teleported to Koutetsu, and knocked the boy out before he even knew it.

Rain sighed as he turned to where Pain was standing.

"Ah, come on! I didn't even get to fight him yet!" he complained.

Pain ignored the remark. The unconscious forms of Sasori and Koutetsu were now floating behind him.

"You weren't supposed to. Did you measure his powers?" he asked.

Mangetsu shrugged.

"The kid has potential. I don't really know his true strength though because he didn't have enough time to show it."

Pain then walked away from Rain, the two floating forms following him.

"Our mission is complete. Return to Hanzo and resume your mission prior to mine."

With that, Pain and the bodies disappeared in a flash of orange, leaving Mangetsu alone and pissed off.

"Well you could've at least teleported me there, or something!" he yelled to no one. "Damn! Now I have to travel the whole way myself!"

He then turned into water, sinking into the ground and traveled through the earth to go back to the River Country.

________________________________________________________________________

_Konoha, Afternoon_

It was noon in Konoha, and Team Kakashi was standing near the front of Konoha, waiting for their sensei to appear to leave with them. Everyone was packed and ready for the trip; even Naruto had brought a small backpack that he carried all of his special ninja equipment, such as exploding tags, with him. His two katanas in their white scabbards were no longer in the shape of an 'X' on his back; now they were both facing to the right. He was still wearing his white mask and blue tunic as well.

Sasuke was wearing his black mask and crimson tunic, and he had brought his katana along as well.

Hinata was keeping her staff in a specially sealed scroll, courtesy of Kakashi, and other than that she only carried a small backpack with her.

Sai also had his katana with him, as well as his necessary art materials.

It wasn't until ten minutes later until Kakashi showed up, mumbling excuses as to why his was late.

"Well, on the way here, I had a sudden flashback of my memories and I stood in the street staring off into space for ten minutes," he claimed, eye-smiling at the group.

Naruto appeared to be in deep thought, stroking his chin.

"Hm…That's not as bogus as all of your other stories, at least," he commented.

Sasuke sighed and began walking out of the village.

"Whatever. Let's just go already," he said, not even turning around.

Everybody nodded and followed him out of the village, headed toward Kumo.

________________________________________________________________________

_Kumo, Korochi Clan_

Roku sighed as he leaned against the wall in his father's office.

"What is it that you want?" he asked, somewhat bored. He had been summoned to his father's office because another messenger came and told him that there was news for him.

"Konoha has accepted the peace treaty that the Raikage offered them. Their head ninja and possibly other ninja will be coming here to give us their own acceptance scroll. While they stay here, they will be staying in the Korochi clan's extra house instead of a hotel, due to the Raikage's courtesy. I just wished to inform you of this before hand.

"Also, your ceremony will begin tomorrow. Do you believe you are prepared for this?" he asked him, already knowing the answer.

Roku smirked.

"Of course! I'm going to become the strongest," he replied, knowing that it was within his potential to make his statement come true.

His father nodded.

"Very well. Don't let your mother spoil you too much before you begin," he advised, smiling.

Roku smiled as well, and gave a small bow to his father before he left the room.

________________________________________________________________________

_Next Morning, Korochi Clan_

Roku stood in the meeting room before his entire clan. He was standing on an elevated platform with his father speaking in front of a pedestal in front of him. His clan was fairly large, larger than Konoha's Hyuuga Clan, but they considered every member important. Every time a ceremony commenced, every clan member would attend. Today, there were two members beginning the tradition, and everyone was excited.

Yes, there was another boy who shared the same birthday as Roku. Kinzoku, his best friend since childhood, was standing beside him as they prepared to begin the tradition.

Both were smiling together as his father, the Clan Head, finished the speech and everybody began clapping politely.

His father turned around and smiled warmly at the two boys. Then, two other members of the clan came up behind Roku and Kinzoku and walked in front of them.

Both members began going through many complicated seals in sync together. When they were done, they both held up their pointer fingers and middle fingers together with one hand, forming the common one handed seal.

A black chakra then formed on the tips of the two fingers on both men, and they stepped closer to the boys.

Roku's father then turned to the two men and shouted out,

"Let the tradition begin!"

Both members touched the black energy to the foreheads of Roku and Kinzoku, and immediately, the blackness disappeared off of their fingers and into the brains of the two.

Roku gritted his teeth and closed eyes his as he felt the energy coursing through him.

Suddenly, his head snapped back, along with Kinzoku, and a black seal of an 'X' appeared on the middle of their foreheads.

Roku's eyes grew pale and his vision of the room before him slowly began to darken, before eventually blackness enveloped his vision, and he saw no more.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later That Day, Training Grounds_

To Roku's surprise, his wasn't completely blind like he had thought he would be. While his normal vision was blocked off, whatever black energy that had sealed him before had begun giving him new powers. It hadn't even been a day yet, and he could notice that his hearing was better as well as his chakra sensing abilities. While he couldn't see people or their chakra forms, he could certainly sense when they approached or where they were.

He sighed to himself. Training was certainly going to be much harder now that he couldn't even read new scrolls! But, it was the perfect time to master the jutsu and techniques that he already knew.

Even though he wouldn't be able to actually see the results.

Kuso!

________________________________________________________________________

_Trail to Kumo_

Naruto and his team were currently on a trail, heading upwards to the Land of Lightning. The trip so far had had little excitement in it, and Naruto was beginning to become uncomfortable in the silence.

"Kakashi-sensei," he asked, turning behind to look at his sensei who was currently reading one of his orange books. Actually, he had already finished his and had stolen this one from Sasuke.

"Hm?" he hummed, not looking up from his book.

Naruto turned back and faced forward as he put his hands behind his head.

"Tell us more about the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Have you ever been their?" he asked, curious. Sasuke, Hinata and Sai were listening as well.

Kakashi hummed again as he thought back to his memories.

"Yes, I have been there before. It's quite a fun village to be in. Just like every other hidden village, it is unique to its environment and it has a different environment to it. Kumo actually has nice and understanding people in the village."

Hinata then asked a question.

"What is the history of the village?" she asked. "Konoha formed when the Uchiha Clan made an alliance with the Senju Clan, so how did this village form?"

Kakashi patted her on the head, closing his book shut, now paying attention to the conversation.

"Good question! Kumo was said to have originated high in the mountains, even higher then they are today. There were Clans with _lightning_ based jutsu in cloud temples high up in the mountains, separated from the rest of the world. It was also said that these clans were the only ones to ever be in contact with the angels, while they were unaffected by the shinobi wars caused by a dark lord and the bijuu that the rest of the world was dealing with."

Naruto's eyes widened as the information came to him. Angels? Hadn't the Kyuubi said something about that to him?

Sasuke interrupted the lessons.

"Angels? Angels don't exist!" he proclaimed.

Kakashi shook his head.

"They exist, just like demons exist. It's only that there are still some demons, like the bijuu, who still stay in contact with humans, while the angels left humans long ago. They also took the study of the different species out of the curriculum of the shinobi Academies."

Now it was Sai's turn to ask a question.

"So where do they live now?"

Kakashi nodded and answered.

"Nobody really knows for sure. It is assumed though that they flew into the sky and created their own civilization above the clouds, where no one can see them. Since the mountains of Kumo go so high, the ancient lightning temples that remain their today are the only places that the angels have ever visited since. It has been many years."

Naruto frowned in thought as he thought about what the Kyuubi had told him.

_They retreated to the Kingdoms of the Sky…_

"Wow!" he responded to the lesson. "This place sure has a cool origin if it began with angels and such. How long until we get there?" he asked.

Kakashi pulled his book back out and began reading.

"We will probably make it in about a week, since we aren't rushing."

________________________________________________________________________

_Kumo, One Week Later, Morning_

When they had finally arrived in Kumo, the kids were all shocked to see the new village. It was amazing! They had traveled up to the main center of the village, where the Kage Tower was in sight.

"Alright team, listen up!" Kakashi said, huddling with his group. "This village is large and open for exploring. While I go and discuss the treaty with the Raikage, you guys go and explore! But first, we have to an escort coming to show us where we are going to stay. Once whoever comes shows you, you can go explore the village! But make sure that you all come back to your rooms by six so that we can eat dinner together, or at least make plans.

"Yatta!" Naruto shouted, clearly excited at exploring this fantastic looking village. Hinata already had her Byakugan activated, excitingly searching through it with her eyes. Sai had already figured out that he would find a great place to paint the mountains, and Sasuke just wanted to get to his room and eat something or the other.

Moments later, a boy with silver hair that appeared to be their age came from out of the wooden platform beneath them, wearing a black shirt and a black Kumo ninja headband. The entire village was not on one mountain, but instead there were different areas on each mountain. For example, the Kage Tower was on one of the larger mountains, on a wooden platform, and on another platform beside it was some sort of store. There were tons of different zip lines that were leading to each different platforms on different mountains, and lifts (A/N: like ski lifts) going up to platforms for those who couldn't use chakra.

The boy who had just appeared gave a small smile to the newcomers.

"Welcome to Kumo," he introduced like he was instructed to. He still was mad that his father made him the escort. "My name is Roku of the Korochi Clan. You will be staying in our suites until you decide to leave. I will be your escort to show you the way there."

Kakashi eye-smiled at the boy, who had rather pale eyes like Hinata.

"Thank you. You may escort my students to their rooms while I go and meet with the Raikage. I'm sure I will be showed where I will stay later."

Roku nodded and mentioned for the four kids to follow him. Kakashi then waved goodbye and disappeared with a shunshin, heading toward the tower.

Roku then began sliding down a zip line which led to another platform. Naruto gave a large smile and followed him. After some hesitation, Hinata and the rest followed the example.

After several zip lines to different platforms, Roku then came to one of the lifts and motioned them to sit on one of them. Roku sat on the first one, and Naruto sat on the lift behind him. Hinata sat next to Naruto, kind of afraid of the height of the fall if the lines were to break, and Sasuke and Sai sat further behind.

The lifts were continuously moving and in short time they were traveling upwards.

Naruto was amazed at the beautiful views that they saw while on the lift. This village was just so amazing!

________________________________________________________________________

_Korochi Clan_

The Korochi Clan was much farther up the mountain, and if one didn't know how to use chakra taking the lift up seemed to be the only way to reach the clan. Unlike the rest of the village, all of the clan buildings were built onto the same mountain, one that seemingly never thinned out and continued to travel up into the sky forever. The wooden platforms were the same, and there were rich looking houses on them.

After they got off of the lift, Roku escorted them too the guest suites. He walked over to a three floor building and slid the paper sliding door open, showing them inside.

All four of the kids were amazed and they quickly ran in, looking forward to exploring the place.

Hinata noticed that the place was strangely similar to the Hyuuga Clan; long wooden hallways and patios with gardens and such nearby. There were spa houses were she could see steam rising above wooden fences around certain corners, and she could also see a dining hall.

Also, just like the Hyuuga Clan, everybody, aside from Roku for some reason, seemed to have the same color brown hair and clear blue eyes…with no visible pupils! Just like the Hyuuga! Man that's creepy!

Sai marked his 15th place that he wanted to start painting as he continued to walk with his friends.

"Where are our rooms?" Sasuke asked, curious as to wear he could put his extra stuff down.

Roku nodded at the expected question and he pointed to the end of the hall.

"Just around the corner. All of the rooms are meant for guest to stay and all have been exceptionally cleaned. You may choose whichever room you may like," he repeated, having memorized the phrase.

Everybody nodded and walked around the corner, opening more sliding doors and entering their large luxurious rooms.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Naruto walked out of his room in a simple black t-shirt with an orange spiral (hand-me-down from Nagato) after showering and enjoying a relaxing hot bath in the spas. Instead of leaving the way he came, he left out a back exit in his room, which led to a shared outer balcony which went down far enough so that other doors could be seen leading to his friends rooms. He leaned against the rail of the balcony as he looked down from the mountain, seeing the rest of the village below it. The view was absolutely breathtaking.

Suddenly, he sensed a chakra force coming from above him, so he went to investigate. He jumped on the balcony rail, and then onto the roof. His room was on the third floor, so they were on the top of the suite.

He was surprised to find Roku leaning back against the roof, staring up into the sky.

"Hey Roku!" Naruto called out.

Roku didn't turn his head to look at Naruto but waved his hand lazily at the blonde boy. Naruto, curious as to what Roku was looking at, lied down on the roof next to the silver-haired boy and looked up into the sky. He was surprised to find another incredible view; he was able to see more mountains coming over them and beautiful clouds.

"Wow," Naruto exclaimed. "This is a pretty amazing view you got up here."

Roku nodded his head.

"Yep, I bet it is. I wish I could see it," he replied, confusing Naruto.

Naruto looked at Roku, wondering if he had his eyes closed, which he didn't. Naruto was used to seeing pale eyes, because he saw Hinata's all the time, so he didn't think that Roku couldn't see.

"What do mean?" Naruto asked, wondering what Roku was implying.

Roku sighed and pulled off his headband to reveal a black 'X' on his forehead.

"This seal is a tradition of my clan. It blinds me for an entire year, but after a year, when it disappears, I will unlock my bloodline limit, the Kurokugan."

Naruto's eyes widened in astonishment. Blind for an entire year! But how had Roku been able to walk around before if he couldn't see?

"What's the Kurokugan?" he ended up asking.

Roku nodded his head and responded.

"The Kurokugan is the opposite of Konoha's Byakugan. Instead of allowing the user to see everything above ground, it allows the user to sense everything touching the ground through vibrations and such. It also allows the user to see the chakra systems of those connected to the ground. I already am developing my own skills of sensing vibrations and chakra. For example, I am able to walk around without hitting anything. Another example is that I can tell your female friend with the Byakugan just activated her Byakugan, and is walking out of her room toward us."

Naruto's eyebrows rose up when he heard a sliding door open, and sure enough, Hinata jumped up to see them on the roof.

"A-Ano," she quietly muttered, "what are you two doing on the roof?" she asked them both.

Naruto smiled at her and motioned for her to come and lay next to them. He explained how Roku was trying to activate a cool doujutsu like hers. After a while, Hinata then told the two,

"It's probably time for us to go and meet up with Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun," she pointed out. The sun was nearing the end of its journey across the sky, and it was casting an orange glow across the lazy afternoon of Kumo.

Naruto nodded and jumped up.

"Good point! See you later Roku! We have to go and see our sensei!"

Roku nodded and Naruto and Hinata jumped off the roof, traveling down to meet with their friends.

________________________________________________________________________

_Unknown Location, Throne Room, Months Later _

Itachi frowned thoughtfully to himself as he, along with the rest of the organization, waited for their master to appear after mentally summoning them. Such meetings were rare in occurrence; the Leader only summoned the entire group when something very important was to happen. The last time they were summoned, it was to announce the death of Kotaru. Many members were shocked; this was the first time someone in the organization had died. Itachi had thought Kotaru to be one of the…better members of Akatsuki. At least he had a sense of humor. Tobi was upset as well because he thought without Kotaru the organization would become more boring and he wouldn't have a prank partner anymore.

Before he could think anymore, the entire room began to rumble. Suddenly, Itachi's elevated throne began moving closer to the two other thrones on the side of him. This was happening to every throne in the room. Then, the ground started shaking even more and with the newfound space, two large circles of dark purple chakra appeared on the circumference of the circle. Suddenly, two more thrones elevated from the spheres, completing the circle. Just like every other throne in the room, these two had seals on the middle of them. One of them said _Hunter_, while the other said _Silent_. Whispering began to go through all of the other members, when suddenly the large throne in the middle ignited in a large purple fire.

When the fire died down, it revealed the Leader sitting down in his throne, and three people surrounding him.

"Today," he announced, "three new members or entering our organization. Sasori Akasuna is replacing our old _Weapons_ specialist. He will now be a part of Akatsuki."

A large and not human looking person with strange pulled back hair and a mask over his face jumped up to his new throne, which seemed to be specially made for his large shape.

"Zetsu will become the new _Hunter _for the organization, and his special abilities will be greatly needed."

A very tall…plant like creature, better described as a man in a Venus Fly Trap plant, who had a black and white face split perfectly in the middle, jumped up to the throne entitled _Hunter_. Zetsu, as well as Sasori was wearing special Akatsuki outfits designed for their bodies.

"And this is the last member that will be joining Akatsuki."

A normal sized man stood in the middle of all of the thrones, observing every member. He was dressed in a special version of the Akatsuki wardrobe; instead of having a high collar that concealed his lower face, he had a tighter black outfit (still which had red clouds on it) and a black hood which concealed his face. The man also had shorter arm sleeves, and his hands were visible. Several throwing knives could be seen on his side, as well as a katana across his back.

After being announced, the man lifted his head up and looked at all of the members sitting on the elevated thrones. He turned around as he observed every member, though for an unknown reason he stopped for a split second when he passed Sasori's and Pain's thrones. Right after, he disappeared and reappeared on his throne, completely silent.

The Leader continued.

"No more members will be joining our organization. We have my desired amount of twenty members. Together, we will be able to accomplish our goals. Akatsuki will destroy all of the evil forces who are not our allies, and we will then conquer this world. But before we can do that, there are powerful forces out in the world that concern me.

"The Bijuu; nine powerful demons that refused to go to the underworld and accept their banishment. These creatures all have immense power. Our first goal is to research and learn all we can about these creatures, and capture them. I have a special jutsu that will allow us to rob the Bijuu of their power. But to go and search for these demons, I have assigned certain groups for certain jobs. For the groups that won't be searching for Bijuu, I will assign you another job. Here are the teams:

Pain : Konan

Itachi : Sub-Zero

_Fire _: _Wind_

_Metal Earth _: _Force_

_Nature_ : _Thief_

Orochimaru : Kimimaro

_Thunder_ : _Explosion_

Obito : Sasori

Hanzo: Rain

_Silent_, you will work alone with your special assignments, and if you need a partner you may choose one.

Zetsu, you will work alone, being the spy and bounty hunter of the organizations. And as you all know, we have our own medic nin in Akatsuki, so if any of you are injured on your assigned missions, you may report to Rin."

Nagato's, Konan's and Itachi's eyes widened when they thought about the first plan of Akatsuki.

_Capture all of the Bijuu?! Naruto!!_

"Just like you must all obey my orders, you must obey the orders of my second-in-command, Pain. If I do not wish to come to a meeting, he will become the temporary leader of Akatsuki in my absence. Dismissed!"

All of the members disappeared, including the Leader who vanished in a swirl of purple flame, leaving Itachi, Konan and Pain to themselves.

"Meet me in my room," Pain said. With that, he disappeared in an orange flash. Konan dispersed as well into shards of small crystal, and Itachi then used a genjutsu teleportation and faded out of existence.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Pain and his two old teammates just finished discussing how they would be able to save Naruto from being killed by their organization. The Leader had given Pain an immense amount of control over the organization, making him the leader when he wasn't present. Pain would eventually assign Itachi and Sub-Zero to subdue Naruto, though Itachi would make sure Naruto would never be captured.

How much power Pain had was also another topic that they were talking about.

"…There is something interesting I learned from the Leader days ago that I wish to share with you two," Nagato told them, crossing his arms.

Itachi and Konan paid close attention as they waited for him to continue.

"As you know, the Leader somehow obtained immortality long ago before the first shinobi war. Gyatso Namikaze was the only ninja who rivaled the Leader in power. It is even said that the two used to be best friends. Anyway, the Leader knew Gyatso more than anyone else and because he believes that I am now working for him, he has shared with me some sacred techniques of the Rinnegan.

"Gyatso was called the Sage of Six Paths. The Leader told me this was because he mastered six elements: _water_, _earth_, _fire_, _lightning_, _wind_, _force_ and all the sub elements in between. Because of his mastery of all of the elements, he was able to spilt his powers into six equal forms; five permanent clones that he could summon as well as himself. The Leader told me of the technique and how to create it.

"Not only that, but he gave me a scroll of Gyatso's two most valuable techniques. With these techniques, my power has increased more than I ever imagined it could."

Itachi realized how serious Nagato was sounding so he understood that these techniques had to be monumental.

"These techniques…" Itachi asked, "What are they?"

Pain closed his eyes as he responded.

"The power to control gravity like I had never imagined before, and the power to save the lives of those who I wish to save. I now have the power to return the souls of those who recently died; the power to momentarily control the divinity of death."

Itachi's eyes widened and he was at a lost for words, and Konan stuttered with himself for a moment before she was able to respond to such a claim.

"You can _raise the dead_?!?!" she nearly shouted, unsure whether or not to be overjoyed or terrified.

Nagato nodded his head.

"I fear that I am becoming less of a human with all of my new powers, and more of…a god."

­­________________________________________________________________________

_Suna_

Twelve-year-old Gaara got out of his bed and looked around his private room. He hadn't been sleeping, but he had been meditating and working on his chakra control. He looked around his medium sized room at all of the pictures that were now filling his room.

On top of his cabinet, there was a picture of him, Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Sai smiling in front of the Sand Village. Yashamaru had taken it before they had left.

Another picture next to it was Yashamaru himself, smiling at the camera.

Every other picture that littered the place was of Kairi, alone or with him. There were pictures ranging from when he was nine years old to his current age. Gaara smiled as he picked one of the first pictures he had ever taken with Kairi.

They were at a restaurant, and Kairi had asked someone nearby to take a picture of them. Kairi had bought herself a camera using the money she made from working at the flower shop. Gaara volunteered to pay, seeing how he was the son of the Kazekage and money was never a problem for him, but she insisted on using her own money. She and Gaara were smiling while sitting next to each other that afternoon.

The general population of Suna still treated Gaara like a monster, but Gaara had not once showed any act of aggression ever since he befriended Kairi. She had insisted that they would both be nice to everyone so that eventually people would start warming up to them. The female owner of the flower shop which Kairi worked at had actually changed and treated Gaara very nice now, to Kairi's delight.

One of his deeper regrets had been that he had never been able to come to terms with Koutetsu, the boy who he had crippled and captured his best friend. Kairi had wanted him to apologize to Koutetsu, but he never could and the puppeteer had disappeared from Suna a while back. However, Gaara had changed since then and he was a new person.

Gaara smiled even wider as he looked at a more recent picture of himself and Kairi. He was putting his arm around her shoulders, and she was happily blushing while the picture took place. She had been growing out her hair after getting a short cut when she was eleven, and now it almost reached down to her lower back.

Gaara had also noticed that over the years…Kairi had become really pretty in his eyes. He now considered her to be really beautiful, and whenever he told her, she would always blush.

"Gaara-kun!" he heard Kairi shout from downstairs in the kitchen. "Breakfast is ready! Hurry up and get down here!"

Gaara put the picture down and ran downstairs, leaving his sand gourd by his bed.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later, Afternoon, Suna Training Grounds_

Gaara widely grinned when he mastered one of the forms of kenjutsu. It turns out that Kairi had never been taught the main three ninja arts, and she was not a ninja, but she knew her family's special kenjutsu. Over the past year Kairi had been the one teaching him, instead of the other way around like before in previous years, saying that 'he needed to learn some other fighting styles besides relying on his 'stupid' sand'. Gaara had actually agreed and had been willing to learn.

"Good job!" Kairi congratulated Gaara as he returned to his regular standing stance. In truth, Kairi wasn't much better than Gaara was now, only having mastered several forms herself, and Gaara would soon become better than her.

The weapon that they were both using was a thin oval metal staff that had a double-edged blade coming out of one end. The staff itself was a little smaller than the usual staff, but the blade at one end made it longer. Gaara's staff had tan training bandages which enwrapped the two parts where he held the staff with his hands so that he would have a better grip. The metal staff had no cross-guard at the end of it.

"Now, let's have a sparring match!" Kairi said excitingly.

Gaara nodded and formed his stance. He leaned back on his right leg, and he stuck out his left leg on the ground in front of him. His right hand was on the same level as his face, holding the end of the metal staff. His left hand was parallel with his left leg, pointing the staff diagonally to the ground. The blade at the end of the staff was closest to his left hand.

"Let's go!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Next Day, Kazekage's Office, Morning_

Gaara stood present before the Kazekage's desk. Instead of the usual ANBU guards standing next to him during any meeting, his two siblings, Temari and Kankuro stood beside him. Gaara gave his siblings cold looks before turning his attention back to the Kazekage.

"I have summoned you today, Gaara," the Kage began, "because we have important plans to discuss with you.

"The Chunin exams are coming up, and it is time for you to participate at last," he said.

Gaara nodded in understanding. This made sense; he was perfectly ready to take the exams. But he had always been ready to take the exams, ever since young. Why did his father decide now…?

"Your two partners will be your siblings, Temari and Kankuro," he continued, motioning to the two nervous children beside him, almost as if he thought that Gaara wouldn't even recognize them.

"You will stop spending time with that…_traitor_…and you will train with your siblings in preparation of the grand plan!" he ordered to Gaara.

Gaara already disagreed with this plan. There was no way that he would stop spending time with Kairi! And he had just called her a traitor! Besides, it was her _birthday _today and there was no way that he was going to miss it just to train with his two siblings. He had to restrain himself from attacking father and decided to play along.

"Oh? And what is this _grand plan_ that you speak of?" he finally asked.

The Kazekage laughed.

"This upcoming Chunin Exams, we will be allying ourselves with the new Sound Village and we will completely crush Konoha!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Gaara had disagreed with the Kazekage's plan. There was no way that he was going to attack Konoha, the village where his four other friends were. Not a chance! However, he had no idea how his father was going to deal with his rejection. The evil man would not accept it, that was for sure, but what would he do?

Would the Kazekage force Gaara to come? Would he try and kill him again? Would Gaara have to run away from his own village?

He had no idea what was going to happen, and only time would tell. All he could do now was enjoy the forbidden time that he was spending with his best friend, Kairi.

­________________________________________________________________________

_Kumo, Morning_

Naruto was currently packing up all of his stuff in his room as he prepared to leave Kumo with his team. He finished folding up his sleeping mat, putting it in his closet, and he walked out into the hallway.

He met Hinata in the hallway; she seemed to be at the same point at packing as he was.

"Hey Hinata-chan!" he waved her over. "Is everybody else ready?" he asked her, wondering how much time he had left.

Hinata nodded her head.

"Y-Yes, Kakashi finished everything he needed to do and Sai and Sasuke still haven't come back from breakfast,"

Naruto nodded his head, thinking about what he could do.

"Well, that gives us about an hour before we should meet up with Kakashi. Hey! Wanna go and find a ramen bar and eat?!" he asked, pretty hungry. Suna didn't have any ramen bars, and Kusa's ramen bars weren't anything special, but Naruto had no idea about Kumo's ramen!

Hinata looked to the side for a moment. Of course having breakfast with Naruto would be astounding, but she forgot to pack any money and-

"Come on, Hina-chan! Don't make me eat alone! I'll even pay for you!" he offered, wanting her to come with him.

At this Hinata smiled at him with a small blush and nodded her head.

"O-Okay Naruto- kun," she responded.

Naruto cheered into the air and grabbed her hand, running out of the suite, pretending he had an idea of where he was going. Hinata was happy enough to be led by Naruto anyway, so it didn't matter.

Roku, who was once more cloud-gazing on the roof of the suite, frowned as he heard the entire conversation.

"What's ramen?" he asked aloud, very curious at the new type of food.

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere_

Eventually Naruto found a ramen bar, though Hinata helped a little bit. Just a little though! He ran around for a while, carrying her piggyback style to both of their delights, jumping around on the wooden platforms and sliding down zip lines. But eventually, after she had a lot of fun, she decided to activate her bloodline limit. Naruto had forgotten about her obvious talent in finding things, but why she didn't just activate her eyes in the first place she would never tell him.

The ramen bar was much like Ichiraku's back at in Konoha, and Naruto and Hinata sat next to each other on stools as they waited to be attended to. The place was called the Heavenly Angel Ramen Bar. There was also a sign on the side that said 'home to an angelic recipe that angels themselves once enjoyed!' But instead of an aged man like Ichiraku, a young girl their age in a white cooking outfit walked up behind the counter. She had long blond hair and beautiful sparkling blue eyes.

Instead of verbally greeting them, she kindly eye-smiled and waved her hand at them.

Naruto smiled back and said,

"Hey! Are you going to take our orders?" he asked, his stomach growling in anticipation of its favorite food.

She seemed startled for a moment, but then she took out a notepad and a pen, preparing to write. She nodded her head and waiting for them to say what they wanted.

Talking her hint, he spoke up.

"I would like to try the Heavenly Angel Ramen please! What about you, Hinata-chan?" he asked his best friend, wondering what she would order.

Hinata nodded her head and looked at Naruto.

"I-I think I'll try it too," she nervously responded, still slightly flushed thinking that she was on a date with Naruto.

The unnamed blonde waitress seemed to stare at the two dreamily for a moment before she snapped out of it. She quickly wrote something down on the paper and ran back to the chef, giving the orders.

Minutes later, she came out with large ramen bowls and nervously placed them in front of Naruto and Hinata.

She smiled for a moment and went to the back, waiting for them to finish.

The ramen was great, and when they were done, Naruto paid for the meals and they headed back to their rooms to meet up with Kakashi.

________________________________________________________________________

_Korochi Clan_

In the front of the Korochi Clan, Kakashi and his team prepared to leave Kumo. Roku was there was well, to see them off.

"Roku, you should have eaten ramen with us!" Naruto told him as they were walking out of the Clan gates.

Roku frowned thoughtfully as he nodded his head.

"What's ramen?" he asked Naruto, never before having eaten the dish.

It took several moments for it to sink in that Roku was serious.

"What?! You've never had ramen before?!" Naruto asked, amazed.

Roku nodded his head.

Naruto's eyes widened as if Roku was critically injured.

"This is serious! You need to go and eat a bowl of it today before you die of 'lack of ramen'!" he told him, completely serious.

Roku nodded again. He would try it; there was no reason why not to.

Soon later, the group left Kumo leaving Roku alone to his thoughts.

_Ramen…I wonder how it will taste?_

________________________________________________________________________

_Secret Meeting, Afternoon_

The Kazekage sat at the front of the table with his robes on. Before him were seven Jonin sitting at the table.

"I have gathered you all here today to discuss with you all once more…our plan," the Kage announced.

The Jonin nodded together. They had not been gathered in this meeting since Yashamaru had been a member.

"Gaara has grown too powerful for any of our likings. Before, this has not been a problem. But earlier today Gaara has shown his first signs of defiance that he has ever shown me before. I told him of how we are going to invade Konoha during the Chunin Exams, and he openly denied the plan saying that he would be no part of it!"

All of the present Jonin gasped at this revelation. If Gaara would not come with them, then they would have to make a big change in plans…

"So I have finally come upon a conclusion regarding the boy. Gaara is no longer a convenient force of power. He has become a desert storm that may kill our enemies but may very well kill us as well! It is time we eliminate this threat. It is time that we…kill Gaara!"

Everybody agreed. Now it was time to begin forming plans.

"Gaara's strongest weapon is not his sand, but his intelligence. He uses the perfect jutsu for the perfect time. Gaara will always have sand with him, but if we take away his intelligence, he will surely fall into our traps and allow us to kill him in secret!" the Kazekage explained.

"But how will we take away his intelligence?" one of the present Jonin asked. The Kazekage continued.

"With anger! If we make him angry enough, he will lose control of his intelligence and make rash decisions! What I have gathered you all here today for, is that we need to make a plan that will-

"Kazekage-sama, if I may interrupt."

The Kage looked at the Jonin with curiosity as he sat up further. "What is it?"

The man gulped as he looked at him.

"Well, he has a relationship with a local peasant. She has no class standing, so there wouldn't be any problem with using her as…bait."

"Who's this...girl?"

"She's young and seems to be very close to him. I looked into it and found that she has no family and that she is living with Gaara. She is also the daughter of traitor who came to our village years ago. So perhaps..."

The Kazekage smiled viciously as he leaned back in his seat. "That is a wonderful idea! We'll use that traitor to get to Gaara." He held his hand out to all of the Jonin. "Go and capture this girl. Do whatever you want with her afterwards. Also, make sure that he will know where to come to our trap. I want him to come to me personally. It'll make things so much easier for us."

"But sir, aren't you worried that the boy might pose a threat to you or our village?"

The Kazekage scoffed. "He may be strong, but _I _am a Kage and I have several Jonin with me. Tonight, Suna will be rid of the demon boy!"

"Yes, Kazekage-sama. We will all be kidnapping her together, for some extra precaution."

"Yes, do whatever you want. Just make sure he gets here."

________________________________________________________________________

_Suna_

Orochimaru and Kimimaro now stood outside of Suna. Orochimaru, announced the senior and leader of the two man group, smiled as he thought of his plan to silently kill the Kazekage and take his place, using his unique jutsu.

"Let's go."

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere, Warehouse_

The Kazekage grinned evilly to himself as he waited for his Jonin to go and capture Kairi. If everything went according to plan, Gaara would come enraged and out of control while he was searching for his friend and the Kazekage would be able to easily kill the angry demon.

Too bad nothing was going to go according to plan.

The doors of the warehouse opened slowly, but instead of seeing his Jonin with the girl, or even Gaara, he was greeted by an even worse surprise.

Orochimaru and Kimimaro, dressed in their full Akatsuki robes, stood at the entrance.

"You are the Kazekage, are you not?" the one with long dark hair called out to him.

The Kage stood up from his seat, angry at anything that might ruin his plans.

"Yes, what is it to you?" he asked cruelly back, not wanting to waste any time.

Before Orochimaru could respond, Kimimaro held out both of his hands with his finger tips pointing at the Kage, shouting,

"_Teshi Sendan!_"

Instantly, the bones of his finger tips began spinning rapidly and all ten of them fired out at insane speeds towards the surprised Kage.

The elite ninja was no pushover; there was a reason as to why he was the Kazekage and it wasn't because of popularity. Seeing the bullets propelling towards him, he was able to back flip out of his chair right before he was penetrated by the drilling bones.

The stone chair he had been sitting on exploded in a shower of rubble due to the force of the impact, but the Kage was standing on the wall behind it, unharmed.

Kimimaro wasn't finished with his favorite technique. During his time during Akatsuki, his bone control had sky rocketed. Not only that, but he could regenerate bones at an insane pace. As soon as the Kage landed, his finger tips continued firing non stop at him, like a machine gun.

The Kage had to shunshin around the room to avoid being destroyed by the bullets. Eventually, Kimimaro had to stop firing, because the room was being destroyed and he couldn't see because of all the rubble and dust flying everywhere.

The moment he ceased firing, the Kazekage appeared behind him with a katana drawn in the middle of the swing. Before Kimimaro even had time to turn around, the blade was going to slice him in half…

But right before it hit, bones erupted from Kimimaro's back and out of the robes to block the katana from going any further.

The Kage pushed with all of his might, but the katana would not move forward.

"My bones are my strongest weapons. They are much stronger than steel or whatever metal your sword is made of," Kimimaro commented, turning his head around.

The Kage processed his situation and pulled the Katana back, using a shunshin to appear in the front of the room again.

He then looked closer at the two intruders who hadn't moved from their original position. The one with the white hair seemed to have control over his own bones, and the other undoubtedly was Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin from Konoha.

Before he had time to further think, Kimimaro with one hand formed a seal, and with his other hand he held out toward the Kage, as if to grab him.

Suddenly, a green portal made of flame appeared between the two and a _giant _arm made of bone, its fingers larger than a human, erupted out of the portal and grabbed the once again surprised Kage.

Kimimaro closed his hand and waved it around, and the bone arm mimicked its master. It grabbed the Kage and thrashed him around the room. Eventually, it stood still, and Kimimaro closed his first completely.

The bone arm did the same, crushing the Kage, only to find sand slipping through its fingers.

The arm retreated back into the green portal which closed directly after and the real Kage appeared in the room and shouted,

"_Wind Style: Hurricane of Destruction!_"

Pushing his hands forward, an extremely large gust of wind enveloped the entire room, slashing into the walls and cutting everything.

When the jutsu finished, the smoke cleared away to reveal both Orochimaru and Kimimaro covered in two bone hands, just as large as the first summon, both unharmed.

The bones then retreated to the green flame portals which they came from and Orochimaru charged forward, smiling while joining the battle.

The Kazekage would die!

________________________________________________________________________

_Unknown Location_

"Leader, you have summoned me,"

The astral projection of Pain kneeled down before the Leader, waiting for further instructions.

"Yes, I have indeed," the Dark Lord responded in his low voice. "Orochimaru is a clever and sly snake, and Kimimaro is just as loyal to him as he is to me. I want you to monitor his progress and report back to me whether or not they have killed the Kazekage yet and taken his identity. Make sure that they only kill those absolutely necessary so that no one knows of the Kage's death or suspects anything."

Nagato nodded his head.

"Yes, Leader,"

The astral projection faded out of the existence.

Far away at a different hideout, the real Pain stood up from his kneeling position and looked out of his own private tower in Amegakure toward the direction of Suna.

In an instant, he disappeared in an orange flash, leaving the eternal rain of Ame to continue to fall out of the dark skies.

________________________________________________________________________

_Suna, Afternoon_

Unaware to the monumental battle that was going on within its borders, Suna carried on with its normal life. Gaara was by himself at home. He had finished his training and he was waiting for Kairi to finish her shift at the flower shop.

Tonight was going to be a special night for him. He had been wondering all week about Kari and his feelings towards her. He didn't know if he liked her as a best friend, or if he had come to like her more than that. He couldn't deny the new feelings of warmth that seemed to pulse through his body stronger than the demons chakra within him. That feeling had to be none other than the renowned 'love' that he had heard so much about.

Of course when he had heard about it, he had no idea that it would eventually come to him.

He sighed to himself as he was unable to rip his thoughts away from Kairi. Her beautiful purple eyes and her soft silver hair...her gentle and caring voice and the look on her face when she was with him…the small blush of happiness that would appear on her face when he hugged her and spent time with her…

Ah! He couldn't take it anymore! He had to do something! He had to know if Kairi felt the same way about him!

Thinking up a plan, he walked out of his apartment building without his gourd as he headed toward the flower shop.

________________________________________________________________________

_Flowershop_

Kairi wasn't fairing much better than Gaara was. She leaned on her counter and sighed as she day-dreamed about Gaara. Recently, she had come to a conclusion about her best friend. She no longer admired him. She no longer liked him. Those simple words in no way described her feelings towards him anymore.

She loved him!

So what if she was only twelve! She had spent over three years living with him; of course she would end up loving him some way or the other! One thing was for sure; she knew that she would never feel like she did toward anybody else but Gaara.

Oh Gaara…

How was she going to tell him her feelings? He was an emotionally deprived child like she was, though much worse! He had never really experienced love before! Did he even know what love was? Would he-

Her thoughts were interrupted as none other than Gaara entered the shop with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Gaara-kun!" she called out to him, waving at him and slightly blushing already. She was leaning forward on the counter with excitement from seeing her friend.

Gaara smiled even bigger at her but shook his head at her greeting.

"Hey! Just cause you know me doesn't mean you can treat me differently!" he said, somewhat confusing her. "I came here to shop and I want to be treated like a normal customer!"

Kairi giggled at his request but followed with his game.

"Okay! Hello, customer-san! Welcome to the Flower Shop, is there anything I can help you with?" she asked, trying her best not to giggled while saying it.

Gaara nodded and appeared to be looking throughout the flower shop carefully.

"Yes, there is," he responded, frowning thoughtfully. "You see, I need a special flower for a special situation. Do you know the meaning of the different colors or types of flowers?" he asked her, acting perfectly.

Kairi giggled again at him and walked around the counter to him.

"I do know a lot about flowers, customer-san," she said. "What type of situation do you need one for?" she asked him, curious herself.

Gaara sighed and mocked embarrassment.

"Well, this is kind of hard to say in public to someone else…"he started, causing her to giggle even more at how out of character he was acting. Gaara was the most painfully obvious person in the world (Sai and Naruto being the only other competition). He could tell a fat and ugly person that they were fat and ugly without thinking he was being rude. Seeing him indecisive like this was like seeing the Kazekage baking cookies and going door-to-door in Suna trying to sell them like a girl-scout.

Gaara sighed again and continued.

"Well, you see…" he started, getting her to pay attention, "There is this special girl that I really like. She's so beautiful and amazing, and I have liked her for a long time now even though we're best friends. I don't know if she likes me back, but I'm going to try and ask her out on a date tonight. Do you know the best type of flower I can use to ask her out?" he questioned her, keeping a serious face.

Kairi froze for a moment as a blush and look of pure joy came on her face.

Gaara liked her!!!! And he was going to ask her out on a date!!!!!

She had extreme trouble controlling her emotions and restraining herself from jumping on Gaara and hugging him, but she was able to keep up their acting.

"Wow! Well, there are a lot of flowers for that category," she explained, still blushing. "So I need to know how much do you like this girl," she told him, trying to hide the hope in her voice.

Gaara took a deep breath and appeared to be deep in thought.

"I…I really like her, more than anyone else in the world and more than I could have ever imagined," he answered, looking Kairi deep in the eyes.

Kairi once again resisted the urge to squeal in delight and she walked over to the side of the store. She reached up and took out a pair of cutters from her uniform. She then cut off a single red rose and handed it over to Gaara.

"This is a red rose which stands for love," she said, "I chose just one because it will tell the girl how much you like her without over doing it with a full bouquet. I think just one will seem more sincere."

Gaara nodded and took the rose, giving her some money for it.

"Thank you! This is perfect! It's just what I needed!"

He turned around and began to walk out, but before he reached the door he turned around and asked her,

"Oh, one last thing. Do…Do you think that the girl will accept the flower and the date?" he asked her, still keeping up his perfect acting.

Kairi smiled greatly at him and responded,

"I think that you have an amazing chance that she will say yes," she replied, feeling butterflies in her stomach.

Gaara nodded and thanked her once more before he left the shop.

When he was out of sight, Kairi staggered backwards to the counter and she leaned on it for support, breathing heavily. She reached one hand up and held it to her heart which was fluttering crazily, sending warmth like she hadn't felt yet in her life through her body.

Gaara loved her!

She had no idea how she was going to make it through the rest of her shift without bolting out the door.

________________________________________________________________________

_Gaara's House, Evening_

When Kairi's work was over, she had bolted home in record time and charged through Gaara's door, breathing heavily. She ran into the kitchen trying to find where Gaara was. She looked around, but she couldn't find him!

She turned around to check upstairs when she was surprised that she nearly ran into Gaara, who had appeared at the entrance, holding a red rose…

Before he could even ask her, she cried out in delight and ran up to him giving him a gigantic hug.

"Yes!" she cried, not even allowing him to ask her.

Gaara smiled into Kairi's hair at her enthusiasm as he hugged her back. So far, every thing was going great for him!

_______________________________________________________________________

_Konoha, Outside, Night_

After they had returned to Konoha that evening, Naruto and his friends had had the luxury of taking the rest of the day off. They had hung out with their friends, who had wanted to know why they hadn't been at school for the past two weeks. Now, it was nearing night and Naruto was at his house with his brother Sasuke and Hinata who had come over to eat dinner with the two. Sai had come as well, though he had left earlier.

After they had eaten the wonderful dinner that Hinata had made, they all decided to go up on top of the astral observatory to relax before Hinata had to leave.

Naruto sat on top of his porch swing on the roof of the astral observatory with Hinata next to him. Sasuke was sitting on the edge of the roof in front of them, reading Make-Out-Paradise. Naruto had been having a great day, from the ramen in Kumo to Hinata's dinner, but for some reason he felt…that something was off.

"What's wrong, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, sensing his discomfort.

"I don't know," he truthfully responded.

"I just have a feeling that something bad is going to happen tonight…"

Sasuke shrugged it off as just a feeling and continued on with his reading. Still, Naruto couldn't relax. He felt as if so many important and terrifying things were going on somewhere, and he just couldn't see it.

________________________________________________________________________

_Gaara's House, Night_

Gaara finished drying his body after stepping out of the shower, and looked at himself in the mirror. His red hair was messily scattered over his face, so he tried to pick up a comb in attempts to make it neater. Tonight was a fairly important night for him! It was Kairi's birthday today, and he had asked her out on…a date! He asked her if she wanted to dine with him at a fancy restaurant, and she had said yes! Of course, she blushed a great deal knowing that it was a date, but not out of shyness. No, Kairi only blushed out of sheer happiness. She was so delighted that Gaara loved her, and he was joyful that she loved him back.

He sighed in happiness and he looked in the mirror to examine his attempts at making his hair neat.

…nope! He smacked his hair around to give it a messy look after deciding that 'neat' hair just doesn't fit him.

________________________________________________________________________

_One Hour Later, Kitchen_

Gaara now was leaning against his wall impatiently in the kitchen, dressed in a comfortable and expensive kimono, and was waiting until Kairi returned to his house. She was supposed to return about an hour ago from the store. She had left to go and pick up the nice and expensive kimono that Gaara had bought for her. She claimed that she would return by 7:00, but now it was an hour past…

Somewhat worried, Gaara left his house to go and see what was taking her so long.

________________________________________________________________________

_Streets of Suna_

As Gaara walked down the streets of Suna, he found that his walk continued to grow faster until he was now jogging to the store. Sure, he was probably imagining the worst, but he _had _vowed to protect her forever, so he could never be too unsafe…

When he finally reached the store, his heart froze as he saw that the windows were shattered.

He quickly ran inside and saw that the inside of the store was in a complete mess; clothes of all type were littering the ground. He heard a grumble in front of the store, so he ran over to investigate.

To his horror, he saw the owner of the shop lying on the ground covered in bloody kunai wounds. He ran up to him, and noticed that the man had no fatal wounds; he would live.

"Th-Th-The…th-th-th-the girl…" the owner managed to stumble out as blood dripped from his mouth. Gaara pulled the man close to him.

"What girl?! Did she have silver hair?!" he loudly asked, fearing the worst.

The owner nodded.

"Y-Yes! The man said that he would be at the trash site in the third district of Suna!"

Gaara said nothing more as he disappeared in a swirl of sand, reappearing outside of the store. He jumped into the air and headed towards the third district of Suna.

_______________________________________________________________________

_Streets_

Gaara could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he raced towards the trash site. A rare downfall of rain which was almost nonexistent in the desert began to fall heavily on the village, as if the gods were crying for Gaara. With every step Gaara took, he began to feel more…he couldn't place a name on his current emotions. He had never felt such fear before! The thought of seeing her dead…he needed to save her…at any cost.

Landing in front of the garbage site, Gaara felt numerous powerful chakra signals, probably Jonin. He looked in front of him and he saw that there was a large pile of garbage, almost two stories high, with about four Jonin sitting around a fire which was lit in front of it. It appeared that they had used an advanced camping technique to keep the fire going in the rain by adding a lot of chakra to it. The bastards were sitting in front of the fire as if they had done nothing wrong! He noticed that he could strangely smell extremely well, and he could see much better in the dark as well. He could clearly see the four men before him, and he could smell the heavy scent of alcohol in the air. Hiding behind a large rock, he used his strange new sense of vision and he tried to find Kairi's silver hair near them…

But he didn't see her. Breathing a sigh of relief, he began walking towards them but stopped suddenly when he spotted a small semblance of silver spread upon the base of the large trash heap.

"Hey, who's out there?" one of the drunk Jonin called out.

The four men near the campfire called out to him in their drunken trance.

"You deaf or something? Hurry up and get out of here before were forced to 'defend' ourselves!" He along with several others broke into laughter.

One of them suddenly stopped as he recognized the boy. Grinning, he yelled out.

"Aren't we lucky? It's Gaara! We've been waiting out here to take you to your execution."

Gaara ignored them though as he slowly walked toward the unmoving figure at the bottom of the trash heap. Walking right past the grinning men, he bit his lip in pain and suspense and drew blood.

Kairi, bloody and beaten, lay unnaturally above the trash with her mouth and eyes open and dried tears clinging onto her pale looking face. Her white hair was smudged with remnants of drying blood and her arms had several bruises on them. Her once brilliant purple eyes were open with a permanent, lifeless glaze covering them. With rage, he realized that the expensive dress she had bought earlier was in pieces next to her—the cause of her state showing significantly in it's tattered form. Trying to feel her pulse, he instead received frozen, deathly silence.

"Oh, that little girl? Ha, she didn't last long with us. She did put up a good fight though, for her age. She actually disarmed one of us and managed to injure us before we had to take care of her. Maybe she had a strange bloodline limit that activated or something. She didn't have to die, but, the boss_ did _say that we could do whatever we wanted with her!" the man from before laughed cruelly as he took another swig from his wine bottle.

"Anyways, our boss wants to meet you so if-"

Wavering, he clenched his fists by his sides as his irises glowed crimson and his pupils became slits.

"How...? She was just a child…Not even a ninja…" Laughing inharmoniously, he gripped his face with his hands and looked up into the rain.

"**Humans really are despicable things! You should not be surprised that other humans were able to commit such a sin.**"

"Eh? What are you mumbling there kid?"

Turning slowly, Gaara's wolf-like eyes shone in the night. Bold crimson chakra poured from his body as it covered him with a shroud of hatred and death.

"What the hell is happening-?"

The man didn't finish his sentence as he suddenly found himself without a mouth to talk with. Coincidently, the rest of his head was gone as well. The other men blinked a couple of times as they saw their friend's body slowly fall to the ground. Standing a couple feet away, Gaara held the man's head before crushing it with his bare hands. A spray of blood showered him as he felt his body tremble with rage.

"_**YOU HAVE TRULY ANGERED MY HOST! DEPART TO HELL!" **_

The Jonin screamed as they quickly got up to run away. They hadn't felt this type of evil chakra since the last Suna Jinchuuriki let Okami take control. They didn't get far though as lightening fast sand enwrapped all of them. Closing two of his fist, two Jonin exploded into blood and sand. Gaara held up his other hand and-

"WAIT! WAIT!" Despite being choked with sand, the remaining Jonin managed to get a couple of words out.

"The one who told us to do this was the Kazekage! He was the one that gave us the orders! We're innocent! I'm innocent! I was just following orders!" The man's voice bordered madness as he struggled against Gaara's grip of death.

"_**His father did this to him?" **_His grip of sand lessened somewhat as the man sighed in relief.

"Yes, he's waiting for you at warehouse up ahead!"

Gaara's red eyes narrowed as he dropped the man from his sand prison.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Kissing the boy's feet, the Jonin savored the feeling of life.

Turning towards the trash heap, Gaara looked at Kairi's body as he spoke softly. "**You will receive a proper burial after this is all over...**" With that, he lifted her body with his sand far away from the trash site and he walked towards the outer edge of the trash area and toward the warehouse. The Jonin tried to stand up, but he dropped to his knees as he saw that all of his friends had been cruelly crushed by the sand. The demon hadn't used quite the necessary force for a quick and clean kill; bones, tissue, eyes, hair and organs lay in a bloody mess all around him. But he had survived! He would-

Gaara continued walking as the entire area of trash began to sink into the ground in a _massive_ whirlpool of sand. _**"Lay forever in my prison of sand. Father… I'M COMING FOR YOU!"**_

**________________________________________________________________________**

_Warehouse_

Orochimaru laughed evilly as the Kazekage fell dead before him. It had taken some time, but even the Kazekage couldn't defeat him and his partner with their newly obtained powers!

"Lord Orochimaru," Kimimaro said, appearing next to the Sannin. "I sense a powerful and evil chakra heading our way. What should we do?"

Orochimaru sinisterly grinned and responded,

"Let's be polite and stay to greet whoever is coming! I have the feeling that even if we had not come here the Kazekage would have been slain…"

The doors burst open and an evil chakra filled the room as Gaara, cloaked in red chakra, entered.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside_

The entire pile of trash had sunk into the ground, and the whirlpool of sand had stopped. Pain, who had walked over to the site, frowned thoughtfully as he thought of how massive the jutsu had been. Surely none other than a Kage could have performed such a jutsu. But then again, sand was a sub-element, and the Kazekage of Suna had no control over the sand…

Pain frowned more as he walked further on the site. His robes swayed in the wind that flew threw the desert. He could sense an incredible chakra force coming from inside the warehouse, and as he was about to go in the building, an object in his Rinnegan eyes caught his attention. He turned to investigate what it was, and he was surprised to find the dead body of a young girl with silver hair, around the age of his younger brother.

With sadness in his eyes, he looked at the wounds that covered her body.

"Nobody but the Kazekage was supposed to die," he quietly said to himself. The rare rain continued to pour on the desert, washing some of the blood off her body.

Pain was about to get up and walk away, when his eyes widened and an idea formed in his mind.

"This girl…this girl can still be saved!" he claimed, thinking of his new jutsu.

The ability of Pain…the ability to return the souls of those recently dead to their rightful owners…it was time to see whether or not he was god.

Merely forming the palm seal, Pain formed an immense amount of orange chakra, enough that his entire body was surrounded by it and small pebbles on the ground began to rise in the air from the amount of pressure from the chakra.

"_Gedo Rinne Tensei!!_"

Suddenly, a large demonic figure that only Pain could see rose behind him. The figure towered hundreds of feet into the air, and had Rinnegan eyes just like Pain. It then opened its mouth and a small orb of life energy floated out of it. It smoothly and gracefully flew down to Kairi and dove into her chest.

Surely enough, after several seconds, a bright light filled her eyes and Kairi gasped for breath before passing out, allowing her natural body to take control and heal itself in her slumber.

The demonic summon returned to its portal and Pain kneeled down due to exhaustion. He had no idea that the technique would require _that _much chakra! He began to question the limit of people who he could save at the same time before he himself would die of chakra exhaustion.

After resting for a minute, he stood up and walked to the warehouse, preparing look into whatever fight was going on.

________________________________________________________________________

_Warehouse_

Before anything drastic happened, Orochimaru sealed the dead body of the Kazekage into a scroll so that it would remain safe until he needed to use it. When he was done, he turned with his partner to face the enraged boy.

Orochimaru was about to say something but before he could, a large rumbling sound could be heard from outside.

Suddenly, the ceiling and walls of the warehouse came crashing in as sand began to fill the place. Gaara had formed a gigantic Desert Funeral around the entire building and the two Akatsuki were about to be the ones killed.

The sand destroyed the entire warehouse until it was just the ground left with the sand swirling around the two members.

Gaara, breathing heavily and cloaked in the red chakra, held out his hands as he prepared to crush the two. They may not be his father, but he had to take out his anger on someone!

"_Desert Funer-"_

Before Gaara could finish his gigantic burial, Pain appeared in the middle of everything floating in the air with his palms together.

"_Shinra Kyuuzou!_"

He then pushed both his arms and legs out, and a large sphere of force erupted from around him, blasting everything away. Orochimaru, Kimimaro, Gaara and the sand that had been surrounding all of them was blasted away from Pain in a massive explosion of force.

When the technique finished, Pain landed on the ground, breathing heavily. He then walked over the where Orochimaru and Kimimaro were recovering from the attack. Both were injured, but otherwise they were fine.

Gaara, protected by his demonic chakra, stood up and began walking toward the Akatsuki. But before he could take another step, before he could even blink, Pain was there in front of him in an orange flash. He then held out two fingers and he poked Gaara in the forehead.

The last thing Gaara saw before falling into darkness was the spiral eyes of the Rinnegan.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Gaara woke up in the middle of the desert at night, and it took him a moment to realize everything that happened to him. He remembered looking for Kairi, and then seeing her…seeing her…

Dead.

He sobbed as he thought about his best friend, lying dead on the desert floor. The beautiful look in her eyes was no longer there. Lifeless.

Then he had felt rage. A rage like he had never felt before. The desire to kill. It didn't matter who, he just needed to kill.

But now, the aftereffects were taking place and the adrenaline had faded, and he was left with sorrow and emptiness. He sat there on the sand hugging his knees as he cried into the night.

Eventually, he was able to control his sobs and he stood up. The least he could do for Kairi was give her a proper burial.

He walked around the trash site, trying to remember where he had dropped her off. He hoped that she wasn't hit in the blast from the one orange-haired man who had appeared out of nowhere…

Finally, he had found the semblance of silver hair. It was hard to see in the darkness of night, but he was able to see her still form, illuminated by the large moon.

He walked up to her, and he fell on his knees, tears once again forming in his eyes upon seeing the sight of his fallen love. He brushed the hair out of her face and he laid a hand upon her cheek.

_She still feels warm…_

Her beauty hadn't faded in the slightest since her death! He leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on her lips, wishing that she was still alive. Wishing that she would wake up…

His eyes widened and his head flew backwards in astonishment from the kiss. He…

He had felt her _breathing_.

With his heart racing faster than ever before, he leaned forward and placed his head on her chest.

He heard a pulse!

His head then went up to her mouth.

He could hear her breathing!

Now, he cried out with joy, holding his friend in his arms. She was alive! He hugged her close and thought that he would never let go of her again. _Never_ would he let someone lay a _finger_ of harm upon her!

Suddenly, his brains kicked in and he thought about what must have happened. His father was dead. Those men in dark robes had killed him before Gaara could.

He needed to escape from Suna. It was possible that those men meant to attack him or his village, but one thing was certain. He needed to get out of this hell.

________________________________________________________________________

_Gaara's Apartment, Night_

Gaara was standing on his roof, with a back-pack full of scrolls strapped to his back. He had no room to bring his sand gourd with him, so he had left it back in his room. He had taken only the necessary items with him, sealed in scrolls, as well as the items of importance to him and Kairi.

His silver-haired friend was still unconscious, and she was floating in air beside him, being carried by his sand. When he was ready, he stepped up to the sand as well, levitating above his roof. He then flew on his sand over to the front of Suna.

________________________________________________________________________

_Suna _

Twelve-year-old Gaara stood at the gate of Suna not even looking behind him. Tears fell down into the desert sand as Gaara clenched his teeth in pain. Suna had always treated him like trash, but today was the last straw. They had tried to kill his best friend, Kairi, and they almost succeeded. The pain of nearly loosing his friend was still causing Gaara unimaginable sorrow. The thought of never being able to see her smile again…

Without even looking behind to the village, to his childhood, he walked forward with one destination in mind.

_We no longer have any reason to stay in Suna. We will go to the only other place where people have treated me with kindness. I will return to my friends…I will leave to Konoha._

________________________________________________________________________

_End_

This chapter came out much later than it did, but for a very good reason. I had forgotten about football practice after I had finished the last chapter. This year I have decided to partake in athletics, because I am athletic, and I had no idea how hard footballs two-a-days were going to be. For the past weeks, I have been waking up and six to go to football practice, and coming home at five. _Ten_ hour practices, with a lunch in the middle where we don't even get to go home. It was insane. I can't wait for school to start so that these two-a-days will end. But, I'm in great shape now, apart from the bruises.

Anyway, now we all now what happened with Gaara. Kairi lived! Yep, I had originally planned for her to die, but one night I was thinking to myself how to let her live and I changed to story to fit her in. It all worked out better than I had first imagined. I was going to end up pairing Gaara with Matsuri, but I created a cool OC, Koutetsu, who will also play an important part later on. A very cool part.

Thank you for all who reviewed or put this story in their favorites or alert lists. Reviews are important for this story; Kairi ended up living because of the reviews. I read and consider every review, wondering how I can use it to make the story better. Also, for those who think this story is great enough to go in you favorites, or think that it has potential enough to go in your alert list, don't be shy! Review and tell me what you think of the story so far! Even if you just write, "Nice story, I like it a lot," that's a great review! Reviews are great for a story, but I think to myself, what's better, a story with ten amazing reviews that were written from the heart, or one with a thousand one-word reviews? I like quantity in reviews, but quality ones are appreciated more. My goal for reviews when I became an author was to get over 1000 reviews, even if it meant having to write 100 chapters. So far, I'm almost at 100 reviews, which is incredible!

Power Levels:

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500+**

Characters:

Hinata: **155**

Sasuke: **170 **

Naruto: **180**

Sai: **145 **

Gaara: **200**

Koutetsu: **235**

Kairi: **100 **(I thought she was helpless? Nope. Not only is she talented at kenjutsu, but she unlocked a bloodline limit while fighting the Jonin that you will find out later)

Roku: **200 **(prodigy of the Korochi with a strong Jinchuurki)

Akatsuki's goal is to capture and kill Naruto. And once the Leader realized that he is has the legendary Rinnegan, he will want to kill him even more. All of the Akatsuki are over a power level of **500. **

Think of it like this, Orochimaru and Kimimaro can beat the Kazekage rather easily, Obito can beat Orochimaru and Kimimaro at the same time, Pain can beat Obito, and the Leader could take them all on and win. Naruto has a** long **way to go before he is strong enough. He's gonna need bigger dreams than just becoming the Hokage if he wants to save anyone.

Thank you for reading! Please stay tuned for the next chapter, and the Omake!

-williams5505

________________________________________________________________________

Omake: Infiltrating the Hyuuga Clan!

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's House, Night_

It was late in the evening, nearing night time, and Naruto was bored as ever, not wanting to go to sleep. Kakashi was out on an important meeting of some sort with Anko, Sai had a cold and had to go to bed early, and Hinata was at the Hyuuga Compound, attending some boring dinner meeting or something.

Groaning to himself, he rolled over in his bed, coincidentally falling out. Surprisingly enough, it was the most excitement he had had in hours.

"Gah! I can't take it anymore!!" he complained.

He jumped up and ran out of his room, going to get Sasuke.

The young Uchiha wasn't fairing much better than Naruto, and when Naruto slammed his door open, he saw Sasuke lying on his own bed just like Naruto was doing.

"What's up," Sasuke greeted, knowing that Naruto was the only one who would barge in like that.

"Come on Sasuke!" Naruto yelled to him, "Let's go and do something fun before we have to go to sleep! I'm bored out of my mind!"

Sasuke sat up, and closed his book which he had been reading. You know which book!

"Teme! It's too late. Just go to sleep or something!"

Naruto whined and shook his head, not wanting to accept defeat.

"No way! How about we…do a cool prank on the village?" he asked, excitement laced on his voice.

Sasuke shook his head, frowning behind his ever present black mask.

"Nope. It's 9:00! Why the hell would I want to prank anybody this late?" he asked.

Naruto sighed, trying to think up of something fun to do. Sasuke was all about improving his skills to become a stronger ninja, so maybe something that could help them get stronger…

Naruto's eyes lit up as an idea came to mind.

"I have it! Let's go see Hinata!" he said, thinking how much fun that would be.

Sasuke shook his head again.

"She's attending a dinner meeting and she said she couldn't do anything tonight because it would go pretty late into the night," he responded. "Not only that, but the guards don't let any non-Hyuuga members in past eight, especially when they are having important meetings."

Naruto nodded his head in more excitement.

"That's the point! We're going to infiltrate the Hyuuga Clan and save Hinata! Imagine the guards that will be posted throughout the place! Getting to Hinata would be harder than fighting her in a taijutsu match! And she's probably bored out of her mind!"

Sasuke uncharacteristically jumped out of his bed.

"Are you insane?! That's impossible!!" he claimed, pointing a finger at Naruto.

Naruto shrugged coolly.

"Maybe for a rookie Academy kid like you. Only a real ninja would be able to infiltrate the legendary all-seeing Hyuuga Clan."

Sasuke silently steamed in anger, wounded from the blow to his pride. After a long moment of thought, he finally said,

"Fine. Let's do it. Even though it's probably a suicide mission, I'm bored as hell right now. You're probably wrong though; Hinata's probably having a fun time."

________________________________________________________________________

_Hyuuga Compound_

Hinata mentally groaned as she put her face into her hands with her elbows on the table. She was bored out of her mind! This meeting had been going on since six! That was three hours ago!! Why the hell are these important rich people taking so long?!

"A-hem!" one of the rich people cleared his throat with a heavy accent. "I say! Would anybody care for some tea right now? I'm absolutely parched!"

Hinata groaned as she sunk even further into her arms, wishing for a hero to come and save her from her misery.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside The Compound_

Naruto and Sasuke walked outside the Namikaze compound entrance, both dressed in black. It was dark outside, and the moon, along with the lanterns that hung on top of the street corners illuminated the night. They both snuck up silently to the corner of their street, with the Hyuuga Clan in sight. After all, the Namikaze Clan was built right behind the Hyuuga Clan! Surely some Namikaze boy in the past had a crush on a Hyuuga girl and snuck into the compound at night!

Both could see two Hyuuga guards at the front entrance, with bored looks on their faces, staring straight ahead.

"Alright, hears the plan," Naruto whispered to Sasuke. Sasuke nodded again and again as he listened to what Naruto had to say. When the blonde was done, they both carefully snuck up closer to the entrance. They couldn't just jump over the top of the Hyuuga walls, surely someone would see them or there were seals that would alerts the Clan Head of an intrusion! After all, the Namikaze Clan probably gave the Hyuuga Clan such a seal, because of their close friendship!

Back with the two guards, nothing had been said for hours, they had both been silent since the beginning.

"Man, I hate having to share my watch shift with a boring old fart like you," one of them said.

They then both looked at each other with hateful eyes and they said at the same time,

"What did you say?!"

They were surprised at saying the same thing, but one of them spoke up afterwards.

"I didn't say anything! You called me old and boring!"

The other guard shook his head.

"No! It was you who called me that! Stop paying around, you moron!"

"Hey, wait for a moment; did you hear something just now?"

"Yeah! I heard you call me a boring old fart!"

The fighting continued to grow worse, and Naruto, who had been the one to actually say it, walked between them with Sasuke using their perfected Camouflage Technique. Who would've guessed that they would be using their newly learned technique for such funny purposes?

________________________________________________________________________

_Inside the Hyuuga Compound_

Both of their heartbeats pounded loudly through their bodies. Sasuke hadn't thought that the idea would've even worked in the first place! They dropped the camouflage technique; they could only hold it for a short while anyways, and they crouched low to the ground.

"Where to now, oh creator of brilliant plans?" Sasuke sarcastically asked Naruto.

The blonde boy pointed to the larger looking manor in the middle of the compound that was lit up with lights.

"There! That looks like people would be meeting in there!" he pointed out.

Sasuke agreed and silently followed Naruto over there. He was secretly having as much fun as Naruto, though he would only claim he was doing this for his ninja skills. If they were to get caught by Hinata's father, they were done for!

They snuck up to the manor and Naruto put his ear to the door. Sure enough, he could hear speaking in doors.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming toward him. He quickly turned to Sasuke and whispered,

"Quick, jump on the roof!"

Right after both boys jumped up, the doors opened and an annoyed looking Hyuuga came walking out.

"How much more damn tea can these assholes drink!?!" he muttered to himself. "Absolutely parched? Absolutely parched my ass!"

The angry Hyuuga stormed off to the Hyuuga kitchen, probably to prepare some tea.

"Sasuke," Naruto whispered. "I have another idea!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Inside Hinata's Manor_

The Hyuuga servant walked through the door, though looking more nervous than before. With one hand he was carrying a tray with cups and a tea kettle. The only problem was that Naruto was actually disguised as the Hyuuga using a transformation, and Sasuke was transformed into a tea cup.

Taking out the Hyuuga had been easy. Naruto had used his Sexy Jutsu, a cool jutsu that worked on adults (and for some reason Sasuke to a certain extent) that he had invented during his free time. The Hyuuga servant was knocked out cold, and Naruto transformed into him.

Naruto walked down the hallway and entered the room where the meeting was going on. Surely enough, he spotted Hinata slouched forward, looking like she was ready to fall asleep while some rich looking man was talking with the Hyuugas.

Naruto quietly placed the teacups in front of everyone, making sure to place the transformed Sasuke in front of Hinata. Without interrupting anyone, Naruto then poured tea into everyone's cup, making sure not to fill Hinata's cup, because there was a note in it.

When everyone's cup was filled, except for Hinata's, Naruto quietly said,

"Excuse me, I'm going to go and get more tea for Lady Hinata."

With that, he left down the hall.

Hinata sighed and toyed around with her small tea cup, having nothing else to do. Suddenly, she realized that a note had fallen out of it. She secretly opened it up, and it read,

_Take this cup to the bathroom._

Hinata was puzzled at the note, but using it as an excuse to get out of the boring meeting for a little bit, she whispered to Neji's father (because he was nice) who was sitting at the end of the table next to her,

"A-Ano, Hizashi-san, may I be excused to the lavatory?"

Hizashi, who was just as bored as she was, had recognized that Naruto had been in disguise, as well as the cup. It was easy; he certainly wasn't paying attention to the meeting!

"Sure, get out while you still can!" he whispered back to her, winking as well.

Hinata was slightly confused but she stood up, embarrassed, and took the cup to the bathroom.

________________________________________________________________________  
_Hyuuga Halls_

When Naruto was out of sight, he had returned to his original form, and he headed toward the bathroom. It took him a while to find it, but eventually he found the women's bathroom right next to the men's one.

He slowly gulped as he realized that this was going to be the first time he had ever entered the women's bathroom. What if there was another woman in there? He hadn't thought about that! He couldn't transform into a female; what if some nosy Hyuuga noticed the small chakra pulse and decided to activate their Byakugan?!

He took a deep breath and placed his hand on the door, beginning to push it open slowly. Sweat was falling down his face; he was extremely nervous.

Soon, the door was halfway open. From what he could see, no one was in it! He was about to enter it when suddenly…

The men's bathroom door opened right next to him and none other than Neji walked out at that exact moment.

The young Hyuuga prodigy stopped mid-step and stared at Naruto, who appeared to be peaking into the women's bathroom.

Naruto froze in deep fear and all he could do was stare back at Neji.

The prodigy slowly raised an eyebrow. After what seemed like an eternity, Neji shook his head in disappointment. But before the prodigy could say anything Naruto ran into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hyuuga Bathroom_

Naruto quickly dashed into a stall and hid in it, fearing the worse. Neji had caught him at the worst possible time! Would the quiet Hyuuga turn him in? What would Hinata's father think of him if Neji told him that he was peaking in on the girl's bathroom?

Suddenly, the bathroom door opened and Naruto could hear footsteps coming in. Holding his breath, he tried his best to look under the stall to see the feet of the intruder.

He was surprised and relieved to find the feet of Hinata! How he could so easily recognize her feet he would question himself later.

He burst out of the stall and whispered,

"Hinata-chan!!"

Hinata was about to scream but she was able to cover he mouth just in time. She had walked into her own _girl's _bathroom at 9:00 and _Naruto_ had just jumped out of a stall!!! She was lucky she didn't have a heart attack!

When she was able to calm down, Naruto whispered,

"We've come to save you, Hinata-chan!"

Before she was able to take in the full sentence, she noticed the first word he used.

"We've?" she asked.

Just then, the cup that had been, well, just a cup had turned into Sasuke beside her.

For the second time, Hinata had to hold back her screams.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hinata's Room_

Naruto had convinced Hinata to take them to her room so that she could escape the boring meeting. She had agreed, and now they were all in Hinata's room.

"…now what?" Sasuke asked. They had sneaked into Hinata's manor. What now?

Naruto seemed to ponder on the question for a moment.

"I don't really know," he truthfully responded. "At least we got here!"

Hinata sighed at the antics of the two and fell on her bed, tired.

She undid her necklace that she always wore and placed it on the stand next to her. Naruto smiled to himself when he realized that she still wore his necklace that he had made for her birthday.

However, one of the pearls broke loose and it fell off of the necklace on to the floor, rolling under the bed.

"Oh-oh!" Naruto said, noticing it roll. He fell down and crawled underneath the bed, trying to get the evasive pearl.

"Hey Hinata, you keep a lot of stuff under your bed!" Naruto called out, trying to crawl through the mess.

Suddenly, the door opened and Hiashi entered the room.

"Hinata, where on earth have you…"

He stopped mid-sentence when he saw Sasuke standing over Hinata's bed.

Sasuke stared wide-eyed at Hinata's father.

"I-I-I-I-It's n-n-not what i-it l-looks like!" he stuttered out, waving his hands in front of him.

Hiashi's face grew red and he screamed with all of his heart,

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!!!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

"Is it safe to come out now, Hinata-chan?" Naruto whispered from underneath her bed.

She looked around and nodded her head.

"Yes, Naruto-kun." He crawled out with a smile on his face and a pearl in his hand. He fixed it to the rest of the necklace.

"There you go!"

After a moment of silence, Naruto looked at Hinata who was in her night gown and in the covers. He had stayed underneath her bed for a long time so that Hiashi wouldn't find him.

"Um, Hinata-chan," he asked, "do you think that I can sleep here tonight?"

Hinata blushed immensely at the thought, turning redder than a Sharingan.

"U-U-U-Um, o-o-o-okay N-N-N-Naruto-k-k-k-kun," she stuttered.

She scooted over, and lay still, straight as a board, as Naruto jumped in the bed with her.

"Thanks, Hina-chan!" he whispered to her. As he tried to find a comfortable picture, he felt something strange under the pillow.

He took it out, and observed it closely for a moment.

"Uh, Hinata-chan, why do you keep a picture of me and you kissing under you pillow?"

Hinata couldn't answer, because she had already fallen 'asleep' with a nearly permanent blush on her face.

________________________________________________________________________

_End of Omake_


	10. Genin Teams

Thank you for moving on to the next chapter!

Anotamous: True, not much is progressing, because Naruto and his friends are still only in their early ages of becoming ninja. Thanks for the review…and just one little thing…CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WRITTEN THE 100TH REVIEW FOR THIS STORY!!!!!!!! (Hopefully I counted right.)

On that note, thank you for the support this story has been given. Having a hundred reviews is awesome! Hopefully, I will be able to satisfy all of those out there who read this story. And thank you for sticking with this story!

Garuto: Thanks for the review! Kairi is too cool of a character to be killed anyways.

Roshane: I apologize for Naruto not being strong enough yet, but if I speed up the process it would be far too fast! I'm trying to make this story last longer, so that it is at least over twenty chapters. If I were to make Naruto stronger now, there's nothing to look forward to! Masashi did the same thing with the original series! Naruto wasn't fighting the Leader of Akatsuki until 400 chapters in, and he certainly wasn't strong for the first half of the series! Think of it like saving dessert for after the dinner. **I'm sorry there's not a lot of action now; I'm setting up the series for action later! **Naruto will become powerful, and there will be action throughout this story, and I'm introducing characters early on just like Masashi did so that reading the story further on will be a more enjoyable series.

Lindon2: Thanks!

Kyuubi-sama: Thanks for the review! I hope you enjoy the update.

Godschildtweety: Thank you!

Aki6: Thanks! As for Temari and Kankuro, they basically ignored Gaara for during his childhood, and for a good reason. He was uncontrollable back then, and he wasn't able to form a good relationship with them. Hopefully, they will be able to become friends later on in the story.

The DragonBard: I know! Sannin is not a rank; I don't know if I make it seem like it is, but I merely am doing it because all of the Sannin are above Jonin level, so it can give people a sense of how strong I am thinking about. ANBU is not a rank too, but it's just like I said before. Only those Jonin rank or higher can join the ANBU, so people know how powerful I'm talking about when I mention it. Anyways, thanks for the review!

Rena: Thanks for your review! Pain is going through some hard times right now, and throwing his emotions away seems like an easy way to go about life. By the time he meets with Naruto, will he be completely emotionless? I'm not sure. And as for Gaara and Kairi, we'll just have to wait and see how well they bond with Naruto!

Dbtiger63: Thank you for the reviews and the compliments! I really felt great as you read them. I noticed that you reviewed on earlier chapters, and I was hoping that you would like the story later on, and I'm glad that you still like it. I hope you enjoy the update!

Adngo714: Yeah, I guess I do tend to make a lot of people angry. But, that happens in life, and it's interesting to see how the characters deal with it. Thanks for the review!

Time to get on to the story! Another long-ass chapter that will take you at least an hour to read (unless you're really talented). I hope you enjoy it!

Let's Begin!

Chapter 10: Genin Teams

________________________________________________________________________

_Konoha, Evening_

Kakashi jumped across buildings as he headed for the Hokage's Tower. All Jonin had been summoned, and of course, he was running late, because he had gotten lost on the road of life. He quickly entered the building and jogged up to the floor where the meeting room was, and he entered quietly.

"…that's beside the point," the Hokage said, in the middle of some sort of speech. "You all have been summoned here today because you are considered talented enough to train a team of Genin, regardless of your actual status."

Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise. It was already time for him to choose a Genin team! He had of course been asked to train Genin before, but he was legendary for failing every team. Who could possibly pass his grueling tests? Not only did each team that he failed not have enough teamwork, but they didn't compare to Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Sai who he trained in his own free time.

Sai…His fourth student…Genin teams only consisted of three people, and he already had four! Would he have to give up Sai and train Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata?

"I will be deciding which Genin each of you will be training. However, nothing can be certain now as they have yet to take the Genin test. As soon as the results of those who pass come to me, I will begin organizing teams. But until then, are their any recommendations for teams or any team that any of you request?" he asked.

Kakashi hesitated for a moment before he could speak up. He was going to have to choose which student he would drop. It was…going to have to be Sai. Kakashi had promised Nagato that he would watch over Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata, so he would have to-

"I wish to train the Genin Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuuga," Kurenai, one of the newer Jonin called out.

Kakashi froze again. What?! Hinata couldn't be on that team!!

"What are your reasons?" Hiruzen asked her, being a logical man.

Kurenai cleared her throat and spoke up again.

"I wish to lead a 'search and retrieve' team. Kiba, with his dog and Clan skills, has superior smelling abilities and he would be a great addition. Shino, with his control of insects, will be able to track as well. And Hinata, with her Byakugan, would complete the team with her visual abilities."

The Hokage nodded his head in agreement.

"That seems logical. Are there any other request-"

"Wait!!" Kakashi called out, interrupting the man. Everybody in the room turned to the back to look at the famous copy ninja.

"Hinata Hyuuga can't be on a search team! She belongs with me and her two other partners, Naruto and Sasuke!"

The crowd mumbled as they argued among themselves. Some agreed with Kakashi, thinking that pairing the three best students together would be best. Others thought that it was too dangerous and that there would be a repeat of the Legendary Three. And still others thought that Hinata's skills would best come out on a search team.

"What are your reasons?" the Hokage asked Kakashi, ignoring the fact that he was interrupted.

Kakashi looked at the Kage like he was crazy.

"Reasons? I have been training the three of them for over four years now!! The only reason they haven't been considered a Genin team already is because they chose not to take the test and they don't have their headbands! Their teamwork and care for each other is like none I have ever seen before! I completely believe that they have potential not even the Sannin or the Legendary Three had!"

The crowd began whispering again. The Sannin had been the first original Genin team that rose to power, with each member becoming Kage rank. But the team disbanded, with one becoming evil, and another abandoning Konoha. The village thought that they could create another attempt at a legendary team when Nagato, Konan and Itachi were paired together. That ended up with the Uchiha Clan being massacred and the three leaving the village. Would they dare try and form a third team with the potential?

"What you say makes sense Kakashi. However, what Kurenai says makes sense as well. I will have to think this one over, and I will leave it at that. Are there anymore requests?"

Kakashi leaned back against the wall as the meeting continued. He had to have the three! They've become like family to him! He didn't know what he would do if he didn't have all three of his students!

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's House, Next Morning_

Naruto and Hinata had both arrived at his house the next morning together, because Naruto had slept over at her house the last night after his little…'mission'. They entered his house to find a very pissed off Sasuke.

"I can't believe I listened to your stupid idea of infiltrating the Hyuuga," he said. "Now Hinata's dad probably hates me and my butt is still sore from him literally kicking me out of the compound!" he complained, pointing accusingly at Naruto.

The blonde put his hands up in defense.

"Hey, it's not my fault!" he reasoned. "I _did _say that only a _good _ninja would be able to infiltrate the compound. I guess that you're just a weak Academy kid after all!" he mocked, laughing at him.

He yelped in fear and Sasuke raised his fist and charged forward at him. Both of the kids began running around Hinata; Naruto, trying to avoid Sasuke, and Sasuke trying to pummel Naruto.

"Save me Hinata-chan!" Naruto called out, hiding behind her back.

Hinata blushed a little but sighed at the antics of the two.

"It doesn't matter Sasuke!" she said. "You're not an Academy kid because today we're going to take the Genin test, remember?" she said, trying to calm him down.

Both Naruto and Sasuke stopped as the thought came to them.

"Yatta!" Naruto called out. He was finally going to be able to wear a cool ninja headband and be a Genin!

Sasuke smirked to himself. Becoming a Genin was the first step to becoming stronger. Next would be Chunin, and soon he would become an elite Anbu like his brother had been!

The three ate breakfast together and went to the Academy when they were done.

________________________________________________________________________

_Academy_

Naruto and his friends, including Sai who had met up with them along the way, entered the Academy happily ready to finally pass the Genin test and take a big step closer to becoming Chunin. Sai, being their friend for a long time now, knew that after the Chunin exams Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata planned to leave Konoha and search for their siblings. Sai had been offered to accompany them, and he had of course accepted it. He would leave any village to be with his friends. Not only that, but Sai had a similar goal. He himself had an older brother who he wished to seek out and find if he was still alive. In fact,-

"Alright everybody, listen up!!" Iruka called out from the front of the classroom.

Sai's thoughts were interrupted as the teacher of the room entered and called for his students' attention.

"As you know, today you will be taking the test that will decide whether or not you become Genin!"

There was a mixed reaction with the class. People like Naruto and Kiba cheered verbally, jumping out of their seats, people like Sasuke and Shino silently smirked, people like Hinata and Sakura blushed silently at the thought of being put on a team with Naruto and Sasuke, people like Ino cheered about being put on a team with Sasuke, and people like Shikamaru grumbled about the chance of being put on a team with someone as annoying as Ino. Poor, poor Shikamaru.

"The test will consist of three parts: a writing exam, a physical exam, and a basic jutsu exam. The writing exam will begin in five minutes, so everybody sit down in your seats and get ready!"

Everybody sat down and nervously chatted with each other as they waited for the exams to be passed out. Naruto found that it was hard to sit still with all of the excitement of becoming a Genin.

Eventually, the exams reached the back of the room and Naruto eagerly began it, wanting to be the first to finish. Sasuke recognized the challenge and vowed to finish before Naruto. Both of them zoomed through the answers in record time, trying to finish the test.

_An enemy ninja appears in the village and you spot him. You are supposed to:_

_Charge forward and engage the enemy in combat._

_Retreat and report the enemy sighting to a superior._

_Walk by and pretend that you didn't see the enemy._

_Hide until the enemy is out of sight and then run home._

Naruto sighed mentally at the obviousness of the question. While he personally would chose 'a', he knew that the answer was 'b' so he filled it in and went on to the next problem.

_Genin squads are made up of __ Genin and one ____?_

_a: 2;Chunin_

_b: 3;Chunin_

_c: 2;Jonin_

_d: 3;Jonin_

Sasuke quickly circled in 'd'. Genin teams were made up of three Genin and one Jonin, obviously!

_What is the general job of an ANBU?_

_Participate in dangerous missions assigned by the Hokage._

_Serve the village by completing generous community tasks such as picking up trash or cutting lawns._

_Patrol the village and guard the front entrance._

_All of the above._

Since when do ANBU ever mow lawns? Naruto quickly circled 'a' and moved on to the next question.

_Who was the __**second**__ Hokage?_

_a: Hiruzen Sarutobi_

_b: Hashirama Senju_

_c: Tobirama Senju_

_d: Kakashi Hatake_

Sasuke snorted at the mention of his sensei but filled in 'c' and moved on. He would have to laugh about that one with Naruto later.

_Who made up the 'Sannin'?_

_a: Kurenai Yuhi; Asuma Sarutobi; Kakashi Hatake_

_b: Nagato Namikaze; Itachi Uchiha; Konan Hyuuga_

_c: Orochimaru; Jiraiya; Tsunade_

_d: None of the above._

Naruto took several extra seconds to stare at the name of his older brother and his two other friends before he chose the right answer and went further on the test.

_What common ninja tool should a shinobi always carry with him?_

_a: Kunai_

_b: Exploding Tags_

_c: Underwear_

_d: Hairspray_

This test was a joke! You would have to be a total moron who wore bright orange jumpsuits in order not to ace this test!

The test went on, and eventually Naruto and Sasuke flipped their papers over at the exact same time, shouting,

"Done!"

They nearly gave everyone else in the room a heart attack for screaming in the middle of a silent test, and afterwards they glared evilly at each other.

"Alright you two come up and put your test on my desks so that-"

Iruka hadn't even finished his sentence before Naruto and Sasuke were both airborne, flying to the front of the room trying to turn it in first. Both were headed toward it at the same speed, but right before Naruto could place his paper down, Sasuke shouldered him out of the way and threw his paper down smirking.

"Ah man!" Naruto complained, putting his down second.

"Quiet down you two!" Iruka chided them. "There are still others taking the test!"

Naruto shrugged it off and walked back up to the back of the class, taking his seat besides Hinata, who was shaking her head in amusement at Naruto's tomfoolery.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

When everybody was done, Iruka spoke up again and prepared to tell the class the next part of the test.

"Alright everybody, congratulations on finishing the written exam! The next part will take place outside, where we Chunin teachers will be measuring your physical abilities. You will be doing activities like throwing kunai at targets, and obstacle courses and such. Let's get moving!

Naruto and Sasuke both jumped up and rushed out of the room, trying to be first.

________________________________________________________________________

_River Country_

Gaara and Kairi were currently traveling through River country, headed towards Konoha. With the help of Gaara's unique ability, they had managed to make it across the desert of the Wind Country without harm. There had been an immediate change of environment upon the end of the desert. River country was full of beautiful mountains, rivers and forests, to their delight. The two were currently passing through a small town, and they decided to stop off at a local ramen bar to satisfy their curiosity.

"What do you think ramen is?" Kairi asked Gaara as they headed toward the shop together. After she had awoken from her unconsciousness in the desert, she hadn't separated herself from Gaara unless she had to go to the bathroom. Not that he minded. After seeing his best friend nearly dead, he had never wanted her to leave his sight again. He had told her of how he fought with the two strangers and how the third one with orange hair and strange eyes used a technique to knock him out.

She was surprised herself to have survived. She clearly remembered fighting the men and then…dying. Gaara hadn't a clue as to how she was alive either, but he wasn't complaining.

He reached out and held her hand as he responded to her question.

"I have no idea. But I think I remember Naruto mentioning something about ramen when he visited Suna. Let's try it out!"

Together, still holding hands, they entered the bar and sat down at a table where a waitress came and asked for their orders. Gaara ordered two miso ramen for the both of them and when it arrived, they picked up their chopsticks and dove in.

After the first bite, Gaara stared at the noodles in front of him like he was seeing for the first time again.

"Oh my god, this actually is as amazing as he said it was!!" he exclaimed.

Before Kairi could even giggle in response, he dove in and filled his mouth overflowing with noodles, finding his new favorite food.

________________________________________________________________________

_Konoha_

The physical test had been just as easy as the written test, and Naruto and his friends passed it with flying colors. In fact, every one of Naruto's friends had passed with great scores. People like Shikamaru or Shino, after seeing what Naruto and his group brought to the table, spent their actual time training hard and improving. Iruka had never seen such a group of students with such potential!

Now, Naruto was standing before Iruka and Mizuki, preparing himself for the simple jutsu portion of the test.

"Alright Naruto, you've done phenomenal so far, so let's see how you do on the jutsu portion. Let's see here…Can you please perform a transformation jutsu?"

Naruto nodded.

"Sure!"

With that, he turned into none other than Nagato Namikaze, dressed in his Anbu outfit. The 24-year-old orange-haired young adultit glared coolly at the two with his orange Rinnegan boring into their souls, efficiently creeping out both of them.

After a few moments of this, Naruto poofed back into his normal self and smiled at the rather flabbergasted Iruka. It took several seconds for the instructor to carry on.

"Uh…flawless, Naruto! You really nailed it! Well, for the next jutsu, can you please perform a bunshin?"

Naruto nodded and formed a seal. However, it was a seal unfamiliar to the two Chunin.

Instead of a normal bunshin appearing beside him, the room was filled with solid shadow clones! Iruka once more was amazed at the talent the boy possessed as he marked the end of the test. To prove their existence, the clones all jumped around the room, stomping the floor and flipping off of walls, until they poofed out of reality.

"Naruto! That was amazing! You pass with better than perfect scores! I have no doubt that you are the rookie of the year!"

Naruto smiled and walked up to the desk, taking his forehead protector and strapping it on his head, loving the feeling of it already.

As he walked out of the room, ready to celebrate with his friends, Mizuki's brain ran on overload as an evil plan formed in his mind, revolving around Naruto.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside The Academy_

"Congratulations, Naruto-kun!" Hinata somewhat shyly congratulated her friend. She, along with Sasuke and Sai was wearing her Konoha headband with pride. Now that the Genin test was over, they would have to wait to see what Genin teams they would be placed on. Of course, they wanted to be together, but since there were four of them they knew that it wouldn't happen. They could just hope that at least two of them would be on the same team together.

"If I only got to be on a team with one of you guys," Naruto playfully said as they walked to his house, "I would choose to be with Hinata-chan! With her badass skills and amazing cooking I would be set for life!" he exclaimed, causing the poor girl to blush a deep shade of red.

Sasuke scoffed at the remark.

"Hn! If I had a choice, I would want to be with Sai because his abilities and thought processes are amazing and he also doesn't annoy me so much!" he joked. Clearly the two of them were just playing around.

Sai nodded thoughtfully at the comment.

"I guess because of our previous partnership, you and I would form a strong Genin team, Sasuke," he pointed out.

Naruto pouted at this.

"Hey! Why am I the only person who nobody wants on their team!?" he complained, still clearly being sarcastic.

Hinata, unable to see the joke, immediately spoke up for her long-time crush.

"A-Ano, I-I would w-want to b-be on a t-team with you, N-Naruto-kun," she quietly said, not looking in his eyes but instead staring away on the ground blushing.

Naruto was now the one to scoff.

"Yeah right! You can't even say it with confidence and a straight face; you're just trying to make me feel better. Not only that, but you don't even have a reason as to why you would want me! I'm useless!"

Hinata gasped at the statement and Sasuke and Sai snickered at the comment. Of course everybody would want Naruto! His attitude and care for his teammates was amazing and a Genin team would be boring without him.

Hinata once again failed to catch his sarcasm. This time, she stopped walking and stared at him with a fiery passion in her eyes.

"Don't say things like that Naruto-kun!" she strictly chided, causing everyone else to stop walking and look at her for the serious tone in her voice. "Of course you're not useless! You're probably the strongest person our age! And everybody else only gets stronger because of your inspiration! Maybe nobody wants to say it, but I know for myself that you would be the greatest teammate to have on a Genin squad, because you're funny, talented, and caring to me like no one else ever has been in my life! That's why I would beg to have you as my partner!"

After several moments of silence and redness like none before flowing to Hinata's face for embarrassing herself, Sasuke and Sai broke out laughing with tears coming out of their eyes. This caused Hinata to blush even more. She realized that she took it too far and had said way too much. She felt like she wanted to melt into the ground!

Naruto, however, didn't laugh when he realized that Hinata had spoken from the heart. He smiled brightly at her and slung his arm around her shoulder, leaning on her for support in a friendly way.

"Thanks Hinata-chan! You're awesome! I better be on a Genin team with you, or else the Old Man will regret ever becoming Hokage!"

Hinata almost passed out from the extremely close contact with Naruto but she managed to give a small smile back at him and enjoy the moment as they all walked back to his house to celebrate.

________________________________________________________________________

_Days Later_

The four friends sat in the back of the classroom nervously as Iruka held out his clipboard and prepared to read the Genin teams and Jonin leaders to everybody who had passed the test. Naruto couldn't remember a time where he felt more nervous in his life! For the next year, or at least for months, he would be spending a lot of time with his teammates, and he wanted to be on a team with his friends, not some random people who he had never really talked to before.

"Alright, everybody listen up!" Iruka called out, gaining the required silence and attention. "I will begin reading out the Genin teams and who their Jonin sensei will be. If your name is called out, wait with your team until your Jonin comes to retrieve you. Team 1 will consist of the following people…"

Iruka said the names of several people who Naruto had little idea who they were. He went on to say the next team, and like before, they were random people who never really spoke up in class and did anything.

This went on and eventually Iruka reached team seven. Naruto was basically shaking in his chair. His name, along with Hinata, Sasuke and Sai, hadn't been called yet! There was still a chance that they would be together.

"Before we move on to the next team, I would like to say something important. This year there was a total of twenty-eight people who passed the Genin test. Normally, only twenty-seven would have passed but Sai, you came into our class in the middle of the year a while ago and made the numbers uneven. With twenty-eight kids, we were unable to make teams of three out of everybody. Therefore, you, Sai, will be on a special Genin team. Mainly, by yourself. You will be assigned a single Jonin and you will do missions with that shinobi until next year when you will be paired up with two other Genin, or unless two other shinobi become Genin now, which is unlikely.

Sai nodded as he accepted the fact. It was kind of sad, knowing that he was going to be on a team by himself for a year, unable to take the Chunin exam. He panicked a little as he thought of how Naruto and his other friends planned to leave sometime after they became Chunin. What would happen with him?

"Moving on," Iruka spoke out, "Team Seven will consist of the following students. Naruto Namikaze,"

Naruto sat up straight at the mention of his name.

"Sasuke Uchiha,"

Sasuke smirked in happiness underneath his black mask as he was paired with Naruto. The blonde boy cheered out and gave him a high-five as he was also happy on being paired with one of his best friends. Now all they needed was Hinata to be their last female teammate!

"…Sakura Haruno. Your Jonin will be Kakashi Hatake."

Naruto and Sasuke immediately fell deathly silent as the last name was read out allowed. Everybody in the classroom, including Iruka, had been expecting Hinata to be on their team, and they all fell awkwardly silent at the announcement.

Naruto turned toward Hinata, who was near tears trying to hold back her sobs of disappointment. She was so close to being on a team with her best friends! Now she would be separated from them! Separated from Naruto-kun… And her sensei! She had really bonded with Kakashi over the years and he was like an older brother to her! With him being the sensei of Naruto and Sasuke, she felt so left out!

Sai gave her a pat on the back, sharing her pain. He too wished to be on a team with his friends, but he wasn't.

Iruka swallowed and moved on.

"Team Eight: Shino Aburame; Kiba Inuzuka, and Hinata Hyuuga. Your sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi."

Hinata nodded silently at the mention of her team. At least she was with her friends who she knew…

Kiba and Shino didn't know whether or not to be happy or sad that Hinata was on their team. She was friendly, and they liked her, but she belonged on Team Seven, and they knew that…

Moving on, Iruka read the next team and ended with,

"Alright, and the final team will be: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chouji Akimichi. You're teacher will be Asuma Sarutobi. Everybody, wait for your Jonin sensei to come and pick you up, and congratulations to all of you!

The silence was broken as people moved with their teams and began talking idly with them. Shino and Kiba respected Hinata enough to allow her to spend the last few minutes with her best friends alone. Sakura however, didn't, and walked up to them, taking a seat next to Sasuke.

"Hey Sasuke-kun!" she said, already flirting with him. Naruto and Sasuke were the top students in the class, this everybody knew. So if she was paired with them that must make her amazing as well!

Sasuke completely ignored the remark as he turned to Hinata in an attempt to comfort her. People began leaving the room as Jonin entered and took their students. Soon, Kurenai entered the room and called for Team Eight. Hinata slowly got up, and walked out of the room with her and her teammates after giving a quiet goodbye to Naruto, Sasuke and Sai.

"Damn," was all Sasuke said, clearly being effected by the change of events. They had so easily assumed that they would be put on the same team!

Eventually everybody in the room was gone, and the three friends and Sakura sitting in the back of the room, grieving.

Thirty minutes later, Kakashi entered the room with none other than Anko beside him.

"Sorry we're late," the clearly upset woman hissed out. "But we were just arguing with the Hokage for his bullshit teams that he must have made when he was drunk!"

Kakashi didn't say anything about the topic but explained the situation.

"I know what you two are thinking," he said, motioning toward Naruto and Sasuke, "but please don't do anything rash. It is custom that one Genin team will be made up a student with the highest scores, which is you, Naruto, a student with the highest test scores, which happens to be you, Sasuke, and basically the worst student in the class, which I assume is that pink haired girl sitting next to you two.

"And about Hinata not being on our team; I know, I'm just as upset as you are. Anko had to hold me back from attacking the Hokage when he tried to explain to me his reasoning. And then I also took turns holding her back. Hinata's Byakugan places her on a team with Shino and Kiba, who have tracking abilities. And regarding Sai, you will be training with Anko as a private Genin. My original plan was for you two and Hinata to be on a team, and have Sai to missions with us as well together as two Genin teams, but obviously, that didn't work out. Sai will still be going on some missions with you two, though the Hokage is set on having Hinata on Team Eight."

Silence once more filled the room. Naruto was surprisingly morbid; Kakashi had expected him to explode, yet he was being collected at the moment. Eventually, Anko had to break the silence.

"Sai, why don't you come with me to the back of the Academy so I can give the speech about what you need to do? Let's go."

With that, Sai and Anko left the room, leaving the rest of them alone.

"Why don't we all head out to the roof so we can talk more," Kakashi said. With that, he poofed out of existence. Naruto and Sasuke shared a silent look before they walked out of the door and headed to the roof as well. Sakura followed closely behind.

________________________________________________________________________

_Roof_

When they all met on the roof, Kakashi was seated on the railing and they all sat on the steps.

"Normally, I would ask my Genin to tell me about them, but I already know you guys and I'm sure I will get to know pinky eventually."

Sakura pouted and frowned as she felt left out already. They already knew each other?

"Anyways, I got a survival test planned for you three tomorrow in the morning. Be at training ground seven and six in the morning tomorrow. Oh, and don't eat breakfast, cause you'll puke."

With that short speech, he disappeared, leaving the three students to themselves. Naruto and Sasuke stood up, thinking the same thought.

"Let's go and see how Hinata's doing," Naruto said. Sasuke nodded, and together, they jumped off of the roof, headed toward wherever Hinata might be.

Sakura was left sitting alone to herself, abandoned by her new teammates, wondering if she did something wrong.

________________________________________________________________________

_River Country_

Gaara and Kairi were leaving the River Country, heading into the Fire Country, more specifically toward the Leaf Village. Their tip for the most part had gone undisturbed, for which both were glad. But right now, Gaara was having a hard time remaining quiet. Finally, he stopped walking and asked Kairi,

"Kairi, those men said that you fought them off and that you but up a really good fight. But, you didn't have your weapon with you? How did you fight off several Jonin in hand-to-hand combat? I can't even do that!"

Kairi frowned at the question and looked back into her memories.

"I really have no idea," she responded truthfully. "I remember fearing for my life, and then a sudden energy overcame me. It's hard to describe! I felt…powerful, and fast! I fought the men off with moves I had never seen before, almost as if I had been practicing taijutsu for all of my life!"

It was now Gaara's turn to frown thoughtfully. What had happened? How had she been given such a power boost? He could only think of one explanation.

"You must have some sort of bloodline limit, a kekke genkai," Gaara explained.

Kairi looked at him in wonder.

"You mean like how you can control your sand?!" she asked starting to get excited.

Gaara shook his head at her.

"No, not really. Me controlling this sand isn't a bloodline limit, it is the power given to me from my Bijuu. Your kekke genkai is from your own blood, and it is much different. I don't think that you will be able to control sand like me," he joked.

Kairi smiled at him as her eyes lit up with imagination.

"Well, what do you think it could be?! Could I have super strength, or super speed, or incredible-"

She was cut off by Gaara.

"Bloodline limits don't always work like that. As to what yours may be, we will have to think about that together. Who knows, maybe it will make you stronger than me!"

Kairi laughed as she thought about that possibility.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later, Fire Country_

The two had later entered the fire country and they were standing across from each other in an open field, training.

"Now, we just have to find a way that you could activate your bloodline limit, if you do in fact have one," Gaara explained, crossing his arms. "You said that it first activated out of fear, which isn't uncommon, and that you were given extraordinary taijutsu skills. I've never heard of a bloodline limit that can do this, but let's work with what we have."

Kairi nodded and waited for his instructions.

"Close your eyes and focus your mind on the chakra flowing throughout your body. Try and find if there are any disturbances among you, or if you can feel anything special. When I focus on my own chakra, I can feel the sand and dirt around me. Try and find what you can feel."

Kairi closed her eyes in concentration and did as she was told. However, she was unable to feel anything out of the ordinary, or anything around her. After several minutes of her doing this, she exhaled and pouted.

"I can't feel anything!" she complained. "It's not working!"

Gaara frowned again. Kairi had said that she became faster, stronger, and she was able to fight with amazing taijutsu. Now that he thought about it, her description reminded him of a scroll he had read in the library. It theorized that there were eight gates in specific spots in a person's chakra system, and each gate could be unlocked. Few could master this technique, but the result was…super speed and strength.

Had Kairi opened up a gate of chakra?

He thought even deeper into his memory. If he could remember correctly, the first gate had been located in the brain. He had no idea where all the others were, but he could swear that the first one was in the brain.

"All right Kairi," he said, formulating a plan, "try again, but this time focus on the chakra in your brain. Specifically focus on the flow of chakra."

Kairi once again closed her eyes in concentration, this time however focusing on the chakra in her brain. Sure enough, this time she felt something out of the ordinary, though she had never felt it before. It was almost as if…her chakra flow was being limited by something.

"I do sense something!" she exclaimed. "It's like some sort of barrier limiting the flow of chakra in my body!" she described, surprising even herself.

Gaara nodded, trying to think of how to instruct her.

"Good," he said. "Imagine that your flow of chakra is like…like a stream. Pretend the stream is blocked by a dam of wood, prohibiting the water to flow. Now, break through the wood and let the water flow through your body!"

Kairi followed along with what he said, and when she tried to push her chakra through the gate, something…clicked inside of her!

Suddenly, massive amounts of chakra began flowing throughout her body, and began pouring to fill the air with a powerful pressure. Gaara's eyes widened as he saw her hair began to rise in the air due to the pressure of her very own chakra.

When she opened her eyes, she looked at her body and felt the power flowing through her.

"I-I did it!" she declared, laughing with herself.

Gaara smirked.

"Great! Now, to test it out! Try to attack me, using your new power!" he said, preparing for her to come.

Kairi nodded, though she had no idea how much power she really had. She bolted forward so fast that it seemed as if she was using a shunshin. Gaara could barely see her blurry image darting toward him, but before he could react, she reached back her arm to punch him…

Luckily, his sand was able to appear in front of him to stop the blow. Unluckily, because he had left his sand gourd back in Suna, the sand had come from the ground and wasn't as strong as his old sand.

Her hand easily burst through his defense and she landed a solid blow on his chest, knocking him back, sending him flying across the field.

She gasped in shock at her own power, also fearing for the health of her best friend. But before she could think up an apology, the Gaara she had punched turned into sand, and the real Gaara appeared behind her, reaching back to punch her.

His fist sailed toward her face, preparing to hit her. Of course, he would pull back at the last moment to avoid hurting her, but he would never get the chance.

Faster than he could keep up with, her body turned around and she grabbed his hand, stopping its path. Gaara's eyes widened again at the sheer speed of her movement. One moment, she had been facing one way, and the next moment she was facing him!

With unbelievable power, she flung him up high into the air. Luckily, Gaara had managed to substitute himself with sand before she began attacking. She flew up with the sand clone and began pummeling it in air, sending it to the ground with a bang.

When she landed, she exhaled and she could feel the chakra flow of her body no longer rushing through her like a river, but instead it was back to its normal flow. For the normal ninja, he or she would fall over, completely exhausted after opening a gate, but Kairi returned to her normal state without harm or fatigue.

The dust cleared, revealing an unharmed Gaara smiling at her.

"That was amazing Kairi!" he exclaimed. "I could barely keep up with you! You were incredible!"

She blushed at the compliment and walked over to him, their fight over.

"Well, now that you figured out how to activate this bloodline limit of yours, we can head straight to Konoha."

She smiled back at him and grabbed his hand, and together they walked away, headed toward the Leaf Village.

________________________________________________________________________

_Konoha_

Kurenai sighed as she dismissed her students for the day. Hinata hadn't taken being placed on the team very well, more so than Kurenai had expected. When she discovered that both Kiba and Shino were considered friends to Hinata, she had thought that it would be easy for the girl to fit in with the team, but she was dead wrong. The young Hyuuga was absolutely depressed for their entire meeting. Kurenai hadn't told them much; just that her test going to be the next day at their training grounds in the morning. She didn't even know if Hinata had heard her; she had her head down with tears in her eyes the entire meeting.

Near the end of their meeting, her two best friends, Naruto and Sasuke, had arrived to she how she was doing. When she dismissed Hinata, the three went out together, and she could tell that Sasuke and Hinata were trying to make the girl stop crying.

Had she made a mistake? Did Hinata really belong on Team 7 like Kakashi had insisted?

No. Hinata had great potential on this team, and with them she would become a Chunin. She was sure of it. So then why was the feeling of guilt creeping up on her?

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's House_

The four best friends sat silently on top of Naruto's observatory that evening, looking on at Konoha and enjoying the company of each other. Hinata had been crying on an off, and Naruto had to sit next to her with her leaning on him to keep her settled down.

He had no idea how she must be feeling right now. As a team, he and Sasuke would be going on exciting missions together and go through the Chunin exams together, but Hinata wouldn't. He felt terrible inside that she was feeling so left out from her friends.

Sai was managing better than Hinata because Anko had told him that because of their small team, he would be assigned group missions with Naruto and Sasuke, so he wouldn't be missing out on anything. Poor Hinata…

"Well, tomorrow we take the _real _Genin test…" Naruto said, trying to break the silence. "And I heard that Kakashi hasn't passed a single Genin yet. Who knows, maybe Sasuke and I won't even make the Genin rank!"

Hinata gave a small smile at his remark. If Naruto couldn't pass Kakashi's test, then Kakashi would never have a Genin team because no one would be able to.

Sasuke tried saying something too.

"Yeah, and he told us not to eat breakfast. But now that I think about it, remember when we were traveling to the Mist Village and he told us something about that?" he asked Naruto.

Naruto nodded his head.

"Yeah! He said that breakfast was the most important meal for a ninja and unless we don't want enough energy we need to eat it no matter once. He gave me a fifteen minute lecture when I missed breakfast while I was practicing out in the woods with Hinata!"

Silence. The mention of him training with Hinata caused the girl's eyes to tear up again.

"Um, do you think we should tell Sakura that she should eat breakfast even though Kakashi said not to?" Naruto asked Sasuke, hoping that Hinata wouldn't cry.

Sasuke nervously shook his head.

"No way. She doesn't deserve to be on our team anyway!"

Sai sighed as the two went on with idle conversation. They really cared about Hinata, he could tell. He wished there was a way to help Hinata! And he was sure Naruto would do anything to help her!

________________________________________________________________________

_Later that Night_

Naruto was walking down the streets of Konoha after he had walked Hinata home. He had said good night to her and left her with Neji who had been there as well. When Neji had heard about her placement on Team 8, he immediately understood who devastated Hinata was and he promised Naruto to take care of her when he could.

Now, Naruto walked home depressed as he thought about his best friend. He would do nearly anything to have her replaced with Sakura! He would beg on his hands on knees in front of the Hokage even though Kakashi forbade him from doing so. He would do a million push-ups if he had to! He would-

His thoughts were cut short as none other than Mizuki, his Academy director jogged up next to him, apparently out of breath.

"Naruto!" he called out to him, causing the blonde to turn and look at his old classroom teacher.

"Mizuki-sensei, what do you need?" Naruto politely asked despite his aggravation.

After Mizuki caught his breath, he looked at Naruto and smiled.

"Well Naruto, you have been the debate of the entire day!" he said, confusing the boy.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked back, curious.

Mizuki laughed heartily as he responded.

"Iruka seemed really upset that you weren't placed on a team with Hinata. Don't be fooled, it wasn't him but the Hokage who made the teams," he explained. "So he came up to me and we discussed if there was anything we could do, so we went to the Hokage. Apparently, the Hokage had been previously arguing with Kakashi so when we asked him to reconsider, he finally gave us an option!"

Naruto's eyes widened with joy as he heard the greatest news he could hear.

"Really?! What's the option!? I'll do anything!!" he eagerly responded, nearly jumping up and down.

Mizuki told him to settle down before he continued.

"Listen carefully. What I am about to tell you is considered an S-rank secret given directly from the Hokage. Nobody else can know, except for Sasuke if you need help. And if anyone finds out, then your chance to win Hinata over to your team will no longer exist, understand?"

Naruto nodded his head quickly and silently, not even wanting to speak.

"Good," Mizuki said. "Hinata was placed on a 'search and retrieve' team due to her special abilities. The Hokage decided that if you and Sasuke prove to us that your skills in this field are good enough, you two will take the place of Shino and Kiba and with Kakashi as your sensei, you will become the new 'search and retrieve' team."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding, already sweating from excitement.

"This is your mission. There is a scroll that the Hokage has just hidden in his tower; the Forbidden Jutsu scroll. In it are powerful jutsu that only the Hokage himself is allowed to read. You and Sasuke are to infiltrate the Hokage tower and steal the scroll. Not only that, but both of you must master one jutsu each from the scroll to prove your ability in learning jutsu which is required for the search and retrieve team.

"Hurry, for all of this must be completed before sunrise! You only have so many hours to do this! You must take the scroll to the forest behind the village, and I will meet you there at sunrise. Go while you can!"

Naruto immediately jumped away and nearly flew toward his house at the fastest speed to tell Sasuke of their mission to save Hinata.

Mizuki smirked evilly to himself as watched his brilliant plan unfold.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside the Hokage Tower_

After Naruto had told Sasuke of their mission, the Uchiha had been just as excited as Naruto. Both dressed in black tunics, pants and masks to conceal themselves and had sprinted to the tower where they now where.

"I've been through the Hokage tower before, and there was no place to hide a scroll," Naruto whispered to Sasuke. "That means that the only place where it might be is the old man's office somewhere! I'm sure of it!"

Sasuke nodded, and together they walked up the side of the tower, to where the windows of the Hokage's office were.

Luckily, the old man himself wasn't there late working on his papers, so they would be alone.

Getting in was the next difficulty. Naruto remembered that Nagato had once told him about the alarm system the tower had. If any windows or doors were broken, alarms would go off. They had to avoid getting caught at all costs.

Naruto looked over to Sasuke and they both nodded at each other. They would use the Universal Assimilation Technique, one of the two special techniques Kakashi had taught them. However, just like the Camouflage Technique, neither Naruto nor Sasuke had mastered it, so it would hard for them to get in.

They both went through several hand-seals in sync, and when they were done, Naruto stuck his hand forward, pushing chakra into it.

Sure enough, his hand sunk through the glass window as if it where a liquid. He placed chakra throughout the rest of his body and he leaned forward sinking through the glass.

When he was all the way through, he ended the technique and he fell to the floor, with Sasuke landing next to him shortly after.

"We did it!" Sasuke whispered to him! If they were unable to enter using the technique, Naruto had no idea how else he would have to enter in time.

They searched through the office, and eventually, Naruto opened a closet and inside was the Forbidden Scroll, locked away behind glass.

Naruto took a deep breath and motioned Sasuke over. When he was ready, he activated the Assimilation Technique once again, and his arm melted through the glass, reaching toward the scroll. He carefully and slowly deactivated the technique on his hand only, so that he could grab the scroll.

Once he had a firm grip on the large scroll, he pushed chakra into his hand again and the scroll now became a part of the technique. Naruto slowly and carefully pulled his arm back, and sure enough, the scroll faded through the glass as well.

Naruto and Sasuke both took a deep sigh of relief when the scroll was in their hands. They had no idea whether or not that idea would work, but it did. Quietly and quickly, they exited the tower the same way they entered, and went to the forest like Mizuki instructed to master one technique each.

________________________________________________________________________

_Forests of Konoha_

Naruto and Sasuke sat down next to each other and opened the scroll carefully. Naruto would learn the first jutsu, and then Sasuke would master the second.

To his surprise, the first jutsu listed was none other than the Shadow Clone technique!

"No way!" Naruto said, no longer needed to whisper because they were deep in the forest. "I already know this technique! Does this mean that I don't need to master another?"

Sasuke shook his head as he pointed further down the scroll, beneath the picture of what hand-seal was necessary.

"Look! Apparently, theirs more to this technique than you expected!"

Naruto read were his hand was pointing. It read some of the stuff that Nagato had taught him. Beware, uses a large amount of chakra…memories of the clone will pass on to user…

Naruto flipped the page and his eyes widened at what he saw.

_Continuation: Exploding Shadow Clone Technique_

The technique apparently continued like the title said, and it read _exploding _clone! Suddenly, a flashback of what Sasuke heard came back to him.

________________________________________________________________________

_Flashback, Mist Forest_

_Sasuke, seething in anger, dashed forward and pulled out a kunai in preparation to capture the man. He had left his katana at the inn, so a kunai would have to do. Right when he was about to reach the man, he pulled his kunai back to attack, and…_

_He sensed a flash of chakra with his eyes. Thinking quickly, he covered his body in chakra, and inches away from the enemy,_

_The man exploded._

_Sasuke was blasted away in the raging inferno, flying through the forest until he hit a tree and fell to the ground, moaning in pain._

_The mysterious Akatsuki member then appeared in front of him and crouched down to Sasuke's eye level._

"_Exploding Shadow Clone jutsu. Do you like it? It's one of my favorites, seeing how I am a fan of explosions. I stole that one from Deidara, a man who you may very well meet in the future. Well, I'm guessing that you don't where Sasori is, but seeing how I'm an expert at tracking, I'm sure I'll find him very soon without your help. Have a nice day and I'll say hi to Itachi for you."_

_With that, the man disappeared once more._

________________________________________________________________________

_End of Flashback_

When Sasuke had fought the strange man in the forest who knew Itachi, he had used the Exploding Shadow clone on him!

"I know that technique!" Sasuke explained, sharing his story with Naruto. When the blonde heard the effects of the technique, he was eager to learn it.

_This jutsu works in combination with the __Shadow Clone Technique__ to create a shadow clone that will explode on command. The blast created is considerable, and could potentially kill an attacker engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The blast of the clone will be activated by a chakra pulse from the user, and the size of the blast depends on how much chakra the user makes the clone with._

Naruto read the new hand-seals necessary for this jutsu and he eagerly began to memorize them. Sasuke then took the scroll and flipped the page, looking for an interesting jutsu that fit his style.

Suddenly, he came upon a cool looking genjutsu. The technique was labeled,

_Piercing Darkness Technique_

Sasuke quickly wrote down the hand-seals on a separate scroll of his, so that he wouldn't forget. He also activated his Sharingan while he looked at the seals, so he could memorize them that way as well.

_The Piercing Darkness Technique is a powerful A-ranked genjutsu that was originally developed by the Nara clan, though it was banned by the council do to its danger. This technique will cause an entire area to turn pitch black, blocking all light and vision, blinding the enemy. The area that the vision is blocked will vary with each user, depending on how much chakra is used. To use this jutsu, the enemy must look you're your eyes once activated. Anyone who looks into the eyes of the user who cast the jutsu will fall prey to the darkness. Warning: This jutsu uses up a large amount of chakra and will put strain on the user's eyes unless assisted with a genjutsu enhancing doujutsu._

"Perfect!" Sasuke said. "With my Sharingan, this technique will be awesome!

________________________________________________________________________

_Hours Later_

It was nearing sunrise and the two teammates were lying next to each other, both panting from practicing so hard. Naruto had made more progress on his jutsu, solely due to the fact that he was experienced with making shadow clones and he had an insane amount of chakra, but Sasuke made good progress too. He tried his technique on Naruto, and he could only keep the technique up for several seconds. He also could only use it with his Sharingan activated.

They had about an hour of darkness left before sunrise, and they hoped that Mizuki and the Hokage would be satisfied enough with their progress to let Hinata join their team.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hokage Meeting Room_

Kakashi grumbled to himself as he quickly made his way to the tower, using a teleportation technique. He, and apparently all other Jonin and Chunin had been summoned _very_ early in the morning to the meeting room of the Hokage. He arrived last, as usual, and the meeting had just started when he entered.

"There is urgent news that all of you must hear!" the Hokage, who was standing in front of everyone, called out. "The Forbidden Jutsu scroll has been stolen! And I believe that it was stolen by none other than Naruto Namikaze and Uchiha Sasuke!"

The crowd gasped at the accusation and Kakashi's eye widened in shock. Naruto and Sasuke stole the scroll?! How could they?! And why would they!?

"Everybody is assigned now to go and search the village and its perimeters in search for these two. Bring them back alive with the scroll to me at once! Dismissed!"

With that, everybody disappeared out of the room, and Kakashi immediately went to check the Namikaze compound, knowing that that was what the Hokage would want him to do.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hour Later_

Naruto and Sasuke stopped training when they heard noises in the bushes above them. With his Rinnegan activated, Naruto could see Mizuki chakra.

"Mizuki sensei! You came just in time! Both Sasuke and I have learned one jutsu!" Naruto called out to him, waving.

Sure enough, Mizuki stepped out of the shadows and was standing on top of a branch, curiously with two large shuriken strapped to his back.

"Very good, you two! If you show me that you have mastered them to the right extent, then you both pass and Hinata will be moved to your team! Which jutsu did you learn, Naruto?" he asked, making sure to sound nice.

"I learned the Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto said, lying a little bit. What Mizuki didn't know won't hurt him, and if Naruto said that then there was a better chance of them passing.

"Great!" Mizuki said, pretending to sound proud. "Toss me over the scroll so I can grade you on what you have so far!"

Naruto nodded and he picked up the scroll, preparing to toss it over to Mizuki when…

"Naruto, what are you doing with that scroll?!"

Surprisingly, Iruka appeared in the forest and saw Naruto holding the scroll with Sasuke beside him.

"You came here too, Iruka!" Naruto asked, excited. "Now you can both grade us! We were able to take the scroll, like we were instructed, and we both learned jutsu from it and-"

"Instructed?!" Iruka asked, confused. "Who instructed you two to do such a thing?!"

Naruto and Sasuke looked at Iruka curiously.

"Well, you, the Hokage and Mizuki-sensei did," Sasuke replied.

Iruka's eyes widened when he heard that and he saw Mizuki in the trees.

"Quickly, toss me the scroll, Naruto!" Mizuki called out, becoming nervous.

Naruto was once again about to but Iruka stopped him.

"Don't! Naruto, Mizuki is up to something! I, or the Hokage, never asked you to do such a thing! Mizuki is just trying to use you two to steal the scroll!"

Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes widened with realization as the bad news hit them. They had been tricked!

"Damn it, Iruka!" Mizuki screamed out. "I almost had the scroll! Why the hell did you have to come now! Now I have to kill you _and _kill the demon and the Uchiha!"

Sasuke's eyes widened at Naruto being called a demon, and he looked up confusingly at Mizuki.

"Yes, that's right! Naruto is a demon!" Mizuki called out, smiling maniacally.

Iruka paled when he realized what Mizuki was about to due.

"The Fourth Hokage didn't kill the Kyuubi when it attacked the village! He sealed it into a newborn baby! He sealed it into you, Naruto! You are the nine-tailed-fox!"

Naruto's eyes widened when Mizuki said that out loud. He of course knew that he wasn't a demon, but if Sasuke thought that Naruto was a demon…

With Naruto and Sasuke now being distracted, Mizuki took out one of the large shuriken that was attached to his back and he hurled it toward the surprised blonde.

However, before it was able to reach its path, Iruka jumped in front of him and protected him from the blow. With a sickening noise, the shuriken imbedded itself into the Chunin's back.

"Naruto," Iruka smiled at the even more shocked boy. "Don't listen to him! You're not a demon! I once hated you because the Kyuubi killed my parents, and I thought you were the Kyuubi in the form of a human. But when I got to know you, I realized that there was no way that you could be a demon! I-"

Before Iruka could say anything else, he coughed up blood and fell down to the ground in pain.

Naruto's Rinnegan eyes filled with anger as he looked up to the silver-haired enemy smirking down at them.

"First, you tricked me into believing that there was a chance Hinata could be on my team. Then, you tricked me and Sasuke into stealing the scroll. Third, you attacked one of my precious people! I'm going to destroy you!"

Before Naruto could attack, Sasuke appeared in front of him, his Sharingan eyes filled with resolve.

"And you can _never_ call my brother a demon! I'll kill you before he has the chance!"

Sasuke flew through the hand-seals of his newly learned forbidden genjutsu, attempting to attack Mizuki with it. But Mizuki was experienced, and before Sasuke could finish he threw another one of his large shuriken at him…

Only for Naruto to go through a familiar hand-seal and slam his palm into the ground. Before the shuriken could reach Sasuke, a clone popped out of the ground in a cloud of smoke and knocked the shuriken away with its drawn sword.

By now, Sasuke had finished the hand-seals, and with his crimson eyes he glared into the eyes of Mizuki.

"Cast!" he shouted out, his Sharingan tomoes spinning once.

Mizuki began to panic as two large Sharingan eyes appeared in the air above him, glaring down at him with ferocity. Then, his world began to darken until he was surrounded by pitch black perfect darkness, unable to see even his own fingers in front of him!

Naruto, however, could see perfectly and charged another one of his favorite jutsu, preparing to attack the stunned Chunin. He spread his legs apart and with his left arm, he grabbed his right arm's wrist and pointed his palm to the ground. Wind and chakra began to mix beneath his palm as a white ball of energy the size of a softball appeared beneath him.

"_Wind Release: Rasengan!_"

He charged forward at Mizuki, and jumped in the air to attack the blinded instructor, but Mizuki was able to jump up to avoid the attack, having heard the noise coming toward him.

Having realized that Sasuke had cast the technique, Mizuki began running blinded away from where he heard Sasuke was. Sure enough, after several seconds of running, the genjutsu began to fade, and Sasuke slumped to the side from exhaustion. The technique had constantly been draining chakra from him, and Mizuki had escaped from his current range.

Naruto chased after Mizuki, and when they neared, Naruto pulled out one of the katana strapped to his back. Mizuki pulled out a kunai, and the two engaged in kenjutsu.

"You think you can defeat me?!" Mizuki mocked, dodging and avoiding Naruto's attacks. "You're still just a kid!"

True to Mizuki's words, the Chunin was still more experienced than Naruto in battle and he overpowered him, despite Naruto's Rinnegan being activated. When an opening revealed itself by Naruto swinging and missing, Mizuki stepped forward and stabbed Naruto in the chest.

But instead of the boy falling over in defeat, Mizuki was rewarded with a large

_BOOOM!!!!_

The shadow clone that Naruto had sent after Mizuki exploded, catching the arrogant instructor off guards and sending him into a nearby tree.

________________________________________________________________________

_Konoha_

Kakashi, who had just left the compound, looked into the forests of Konoha as he heard a small explosion and a flash of chakra. He, along with the other ANBU and Jonin who sensed it, headed toward that direction, hoping to find Naruto and Sasuke.

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Morning_

Naruto and Sasuke had both woken up at around nine in the morning, having gotten to bed very late, for obvious reasons. After being interrogated by the Hokage, returning the scroll and assured the Mizuki was behind bars, they had been sent home to sleep. Of course, Kakashi had told them to be at the training grounds by six, but they didn't worry about being late. Kakashi had gotten to sleep later than they did, so there was no way in hell that he would be at the training grounds by six.

Both of them had gotten up tired and miserable, and had eaten breakfast. After, they headed over to the training grounds to start their real Genin test. When they came in sight, they found Sakura sitting down alone, looking miserable herself.

Sakura had been the first to arrive at the training grounds, which was no surprise. She had left early so that there was no way that she could be late, and she was surprised that no one showed up, even after fifteen minutes of waiting. By the time it was 6:15, she had felt like she was ditched by her team, making her feel even more left out than before. But, just in case she somehow heard her sensei wrong, she stayed there and waited.

And waited.

Naruto and Sasuke didn't arrive until about three hours later, and when they did, they didn't greet her but instead they lied down and went to sleep.

Kakashi arrived an hour after them, and pretended like little happened.

"I'm sorry I'm a little late, the funny thing is…"

Before he could finish his excuse, Sakura interrupted him and with an accusing finger she shouted,

"Liar! Both you and Naruto and Sasuke showed up hours late! I've been hear since six!!"

Sasuke scoffed at the remark and stood up along with Naruto.

"So? We kind of had a busy day yesterday. Not only did we get paired without Hinata, but we were tricked into infiltrating the Hokage Tower and stealing the Forbidden Scroll, and then fighting Mizuki who had been the one to trick us!"

Sakura's eyes widened at the claim, and she was unsure whether or not it was true. But before she could respond at all, Kakashi spoke up.

"Whatever, let's not talk about that now. As you guys know, today you have come here to take the _real _Genin test. The one you took at the Academy was basically a fool-proof test to give us Jonin candidates that were somewhat acceptable. You may not like me for saying this, but with all the students who will try to become Genin, only nine of you will make it. It gives you guys around a 65% chance of failing."

Naruto and Sasuke remained unmoved by the statement, already knowing this fact. Sakura, however, became slightly nervous.

"So," Kakashi continued, "The test that I am going to give you today is a survival test. I have these two bells here," he said, holding up two bells and then putting them on his waistband.

"In order to past my test and become Genin, you must take a bell from me. Be warned: I will be attacking you, and unless you come at me with the full intention of killing, there's no way that you are going to pass. You have an hour to take the bells. Any questions?"

Sakura didn't even raise her hand for this.

"Wait!" she nearly shouted. "Why are there only two bells? Does that mean one of us won't pass?!"

Kakashi eye-smiled at here and nodded her head.

"Normally Genin teams are made up of three Genin and one Jonin, but this is going to be an exception!"

Now Sakura felt really left out. Not only did her new sensei know Naruto and Sasuke personally, but he was rigging the test so that they would pass and she wouldn't!!

"Ready? Begin!"

When he said that, all three of the students disappeared from sight, leaving Kakashi to himself. The Jonin pulled out his orange book as he waited for what his students had planned.

Naruto had jumped away with Sasuke, and the two were hiding in the bushes, away from view.

"This test…something's off about it," Naruto whispered.

Sasuke agreed.

"I know! Why would Kakashi only have two bells? Does he really only want a team with just you and me? Can he even do that?"

Naruto shrugged, still deep in thought.

"I don't know. I've never seen a two man Genin cell before, but then again, Sai is the only Genin on his team…"

The two were silent as they tried to think through this. Naruto could feel that just charging at Kakashi with Sasuke wasn't the right thing to do. Kakashi had always said, 'Look underneath the underneath', so what was the true meaning to this test.

It took a while, but finally the truth hit Naruto.

"I get it now!" he exclaimed, turning to Sasuke. The Uchiha raised an eyebrow at Naruto. "Remember when, you, Hinata, Sai and I were once pairing up for a team fight? I wanted to be with Hinata, but he paired me with you instead, giving us a lecture. He said that sometimes we will be on the same team as people who we don't necessarily want to be with, but we have to deal with it and work together to achieve our goals! This isn't about us two getting the bells! It's about seeing whether or not we can work as a true Genin team! It's about seeing whether or not we will pair up with Sakura or do things on our own!!"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he understood now too.

"I get it now too! We have to find Sakura before Kakashi does something!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

When the two had found Sakura, they had filled her in on what they discovered.

"I'm not sure whether or not he will really cares who gets the bells, but it think it's the teamwork that will pass us," Naruto finished.

Sakura nodded. It made sense to her. But how was she going to help?

Reading her mind, Naruto came up with an idea of how they could get the bells from Kakashi together.

"There is a special seal that I use to make Shadow Clones with," he explained. "But I read in the forbidden scroll that there are much more uses for making solid clones…"

________________________________________________________________________

_Field_

Out on the training grounds, Kakashi was waiting patiently for his students to attack him. They only had about thirty minutes left before they ran out of time and they all failed. He hoped that his students would pass…but did they get the main concept?

Suddenly, a large ball of flame, larger in diameter than Kakashi himself, flew out toward him from his side, heading directly toward him.

But before Kakashi could side jump or jump up, two hands of a shadow clone burst out from the ground beneath him, grabbing his feet and preventing him from moving.

The fireball headed directly toward him, until it hit him directly from the side, knocking him far away until the fire subsided.

Naruto frowned as he watched, hidden in the trees. He had just received the memories of his clone being hit with the fire…how was that possible?

"He's in the ground," Naruto whispered to Sasuke who was standing next to him. "He substituted himself with my clone right before he was hit."

Sasuke's eyes widened. He knew that Kakashi was probably the strongest Jonin in the village, but was replacing yourself with another person even possible?

Reading his thoughts, Naruto responded,

"It's not possible to replace yourself with a real person, only other objects, including clones since they are not truly real. Once Kakashi realized that it was a clone grabbing him, he was able to substitute…"

Naruto was cut off as Kakashi appeared out of the ground and faced the direction of their hiding spot.

"Move!" Naruto whispered to Sasuke.

Both of them jumped out of their spot and charged at Kakashi, who was now suspecting them.

_So they want to fight me head on, without using the help of their other teammate. That's a shame_, Kakashi thought to himself as they headed towards him.

While they were running, Naruto formed his signature sign and ten shadow clones appeared. Five of them transformed themselves to look like Sasuke, while the others remained Naruto.

Kakashi was then attacked with then Naruto's and Sasuke's together, and he was pushed back as he had trouble avoiding all of the blows. Every time he thought he would punch the real Naruto or Sasuke, they would just poof out of existence. It was frustrating and difficult, and he eventually back flipped out of the fight, flying through hand-seals.

"_Earth Release: Earth Flow River!_"

Suddenly, the ground in front of Kakashi all the way up to the clones turned into mud and it began flowing quickly, knocking all of the clones off balance. Clone after clone began dispersing, until surprisingly, every one disappeared.

"_Fire Slide!_"

Using a fire shunshin, Sasuke appeared about five feet in front of Kakashi, sliding toward him at high speeds with his foot held outwards in the form of a kick, with flames coming out from his foot.

(A/N: Similar to 'Falcon Kick', from the Super Smash Bros series. Look it up if you don't know it already."

Kakashi was surprised that Sasuke appeared while still moving, but then he remembered that a fire shunshin allows its user to still have their momentum. However, before Kakashi was hit, he jumped in the air to avoid being hit.

Mistake.

Naruto appeared underneath him, and flew threw hand-seals, ending on the palm seal.

"_Wind Style: Compressed Air Bullet Jutsu!_"

Out of Naruto's hands erupted three large balls of wind, headed quickly toward the aerial Kakashi. The Jonin ninja managed to dodge two, but the third one was unavoidable, and he had to cross his arms in front of his body to try and shield himself.

Kakashi was hit, but not injured, but the result of the impact sent him high in the air, soaring into the sky.

At that moment, a medium sized hawk who had been observing the fight from above realized the opportunity and dived toward the aerial Kakashi with its focused and precise eyes pinned on the bells on the Jonin's waist.

Kakashi's experienced eye widened as the hawk flew next to him, inches away, with its claws about to grab the bells. It got so close, that the flying bird managed to get one talon of a bell, but Kakashi managed to twist around and backhand the hawk before it could grab the bells.

The hawk dispersed to reveal Sakura, who was now sailing down toward the ground at a high speed. Luckily for her, she managed to land in the stream to avoid harm.

When Kakashi flipped in air and landed on the ground, he was surprised to find that Naruto and Sasuke were once again hidden from sight.

Despite just being tumbled around, the Jonin smiled beneath his mask.

_They get it! I thought that Naruto and Sasuke were going to ditch their teammate and fight me their selves, but they all used teamwork! They passed the test! I can call this test off and we can-_

Kakashi had let his guard down for the slightest moment and the result was that he was blasted into the nearby woods by a large gust of chakra enhanced wind, courtesy of Naruto.

When he regained his composure in the woods, he heard a cry ring out from behind him,

"_Wind Release: Cutting Whirlwind Technique!_"

A large wind then burst into the woods headed in the direction of Kakashi. While the invisible blades of the wind weren't strong enough to cut through the trees, they were leaving noticeable scars along the trunks at high speeds.

Kakashi hid behind a tree to avoid being blasted, and he stayed behind his cover until the technique ended.

Kakashi sighed as he realized that his Genin wouldn't give up until they either got the bells or the timer ran out. He was about to think up a plan to stay out of harms way when he noticed something strange on the tree in front of him.

It took him a second to realize it, but when he did his eyes widened in shock.

_An exploding tag!!_

The tag lit itself up and exploded in front of him, but before the flames could reach him, the Jonin managed to substitute himself with a nearby wooden log.

He sighed in relief when he realized he was okay, until he realized the odd location of where he was at the moment.

He was standing in the middle of a small clearing in the forest, with kunai tags covering every tree and metal wires every where with shuriken traps and more. He look down and the very ground he was standing on was a pile of explosive tags.

"God help me…" Kakashi whimpered out as the first set of traps ignited.

________________________________________________________________________

_Elsewhere_

Back on the training ground field, Naruto and Sakura, who had climbed out of the river and walked up to her teammate, winced at the large explosions coming out from the forest.

"Uh, I hope I didn't over do it," Sakura said, with some worry in her voice.

Naruto smiled at her and merely laughed.

"Don't worry; I'm sure Kakashi will end up okay! And I think you have a real talent in creating traps!"

Sakura smiled at the compliment as Naruto continued.

"And good job transforming into a solid hawk! You were so close to taking the bells!"

Sakura smiled even more as she focused her attention to the forest where Sasuke's final job would come into action.

________________________________________________________________________

_Forest_

Kakashi had avoided the last explosion and the last set of shuriken fired at him, and he quickly hid behind a tree for cover, panting heavily.

"What the hell?! The point of this test to get a fricken bell, not try to kill me!! And since when did Naruto or Sasuke make traps so good?! There's no way they were the ones who made it! It had to be that pink-haired girl!"

While he was distracted, he failed to notice the hand that reached out from the very tree he was leaning against which silently grabbed the two bells and retreated back, without being noticed.

________________________________________________________________________

_End of the Test_

When the bell for the test rang, Kakashi appeared in the middle of the field, waiting for the Genin to appear.

Sure enough, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura walked out in front of him, all smiling.

"Well, because none of you were actually able to capture the bells, I am going to…"

Kakashi was cut off mid-sentence as a smirking Sasuke held up the two bells that were in his hands. He quickly checked his waist, and sure enough, the bells were gone.

"I snatched them from you when you were leaning against a tree, after you avoided all of Sakura's traps," Sasuke said. "I used the Assimilation Technique, and you didn't even notice!"

Kakashi's eye widened at the fact, but he was able to calm down and adopt a serious face.

"Very well. As I said before, only those who have a bell will pass this test. So, Sasuke, who will you give the other bell to?" Kakashi asked.

All three of the kids frowned as the realization hit them. Kakashi wouldn't pass them all, even after they showed teamwork! One of them wouldn't pass!

It didn't take long for Sasuke to toss the other bell over to Naruto. He would have thought that the choice would be easy, and that he would be happy that Sakura wouldn't be able to be on their team, but for some reason, he had slightly bonded with the girl during the fight and he felt slightly bad for her.

Sakura's head fell down in sadness when she realized that she wouldn't be becoming a Genin. If only…

"Congratulations, all of you, you pass the first test!" Kakashi said, now eye smiling. Sakura's head snapped up with shock upon hearing the news.

"Yes, that's right! You _all_ pass this first test. I was surprised with how well the three of you worked together, that I am willing to give you all a second chance with a different test. However, Sakura, since you didn't receive a bell, you are going to be tied to that log over there without lunch while Sasuke and Naruto eat their lunch in front of you.

"But here is the one rule. Until I return, you two must _not _feed Sakura; otherwise all of you will fail!"

Naruto and Sasuke nodded as Kakashi tossed them two boxed lunches. Sakura was overjoyed to realize that she would have another chance to become a Genin, but was put off that she wouldn't be able to eat. Not only did she not eat breakfast that morning, but she had dieted last night and didn't eat dinner!

Kakashi tied her to a nearby log, and he left, allowing Sasuke and Naruto to eat lunch.

After several minutes of eating, Naruto put his food down and checked with his Rinnegan to see if he could sense Kakashi's presence. When he couldn't, he offered his lunch up to Sakura.

"What are you doing, Naruto?!" Sasuke whispered frantically. "If you feed her, we all fail!"

Naruto shook his head.

"I've been thinking. Kakashi said he would give us all another chance because of our teamwork. So what good would that chance be if Sakura wasn't up to her full potential because she didn't have enough energy? She needs to eat if we are going to do this right!"

Sasuke nodded after a moment of thought as he too offered his lunch to the surprised girl.

"Eat up," Sasuke whispered, feeding her a bite of rice.

The second she swallowed the food, none other than Kakashi appeared in front of them

"WHAT DID I SAY?!?!" he screamed at them, causing Sakura to scream in fear of him. The very clouds above him began to darken and storm as Kakashi's fury frightened them.

However, Naruto was unfazed.

"You said that we need to work with teamwork. So I we were willing to break the rules in order be able to pass the next test! I will always choose to break the rules for my teammates, no matter what!" Naruto firmly said, hoping for the best.

Kakashi's eyes darted between the three.

"Is this what you all think?!" he asked loudly, preparing to scream again.

Sasuke and Sakura firmly nodded, not wanting to back down.

Suddenly, the storm clouds cleared up and Kakashi's attitude instantly changed.

"Great! Then you all pass!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Later, Afternoon_

After a victory lunch at the ramen stand, Naruto and Sasuke said good-bye to their new teammate. They had thought that they would hate Sakura, but apparently, being dead-last throughout the Academy and having Naruto motivate her in the woods, their anger against he began to soften. When they ate together at the ramen bar, she had promised to them that she would no longer be a hindrance to them and that she would train hard everyday so that she would grow stronger.

Apparently, Hinata had passed her test as well, and Naruto and Sasuke had congratulated her when they found her. Kurenai, her sensei, had treated the entire team out to lunch. Naruto had picked her up and spun her around in happiness when she told him that she had passed, causing her to blush and be happy for the first time in a while.

The rest of the day, the three friends relaxed together at Naruto's mansion as they waited for their first missions the next day.

________________________________________________________________________

_Unknown Location_

Unknown to the rest of the world, three other kids Naruto's age had just passed their test as well, though it was easy to say that theirs had been much, much harder.

Suigetsu Hozuki, Koutetsu Sanfu, and a red-headed girl named Karin all kneeled before the mighty throne of the Akatsuki leader, who was smiling evilly at them

"…Good! I am impressed with the potential you three have shown me today. Henceforth, you three are Akatsuki students, and you will train and follow my or Pain's orders until you become strong enough to become an Akatsuki."

Koutetsu, the self-nominated leader of the group, nodded and stood up, dismissing himself from the meeting. His two other teammates nervously stood up as well, and followed him, out of the throne room.

"Know this," the Leader called out before they could leave. The three of them turned around to listen. "If any of you shall ever disobey an order, you will be executed without question. You are easily replaceable. Go and meet up with Tobi and Sasori, who will be arriving here shortly. Those two will become the sensei of you three for now, because Sasori is a master puppeteer, and Tobi knows more jutsu than any other in the Akatsuki."

The three nodded and after bowing, they exited the large room.

________________________________________________________________________

_Outside of Konoha, One Week Later_

When the large gates of Konoha finally came into view, both Gaara and Kairi looked in wonder at the incredible sight.

"It's…its amazing!" Kairi exclaimed, never having seen something so large.

Gaara nodded and continued walking forward. Soon, they would start a new life, and hopefully a better one.

________________________________________________________________________

_Hokage Tower_

Naruto and his team were currently walking up the Hokage tower, heading for the Hokage's office. They had finished another mission, and let's just say that Naruto was beginning to lose his patience with them. He had expected for these 'missions' to be exciting and challenging, but instead they were boring and nearly considered punishments! Why on earth would picking up weeds for some random person's yard be considered a 'mission'? Why did they even half to take a Genin test if they were just going to do childish things? It had only been a week, and Team Seven had caught the Fire Lord's wife's cat twice!! Naruto would keep quiet now, but he could only take so much more of that damn cat…

Sasuke, on the other hand, wasn't as disciplined as Naruto was and he was slightly more arrogant. Someone with his level of skill should be taking out bandits or enemy ninja! He charged through the door of the office and was about to complain when what he saw kept him silent.

When Naruto walked in after him, he too froze in shock after seeing the most random and out of place thing he could see.

Gaara of the Desert, a friend they had made in Suna, was standing before the Hokage's desk talking with him, alongside a girl his age who had silver hair!

Gaara had turned around at the sudden noise, and his teal eyes widened in surprise when he saw his two friends. But before Gaara could even say hello, Naruto dashed forward.

"Gaara!! What are you doing here?! It's so good to see you again!!"

Naruto ran forward and gave his friend a big hug, or, well at least he tried. Right before Naruto made contact; sand appeared from no where and blocked the excited blonde from touching Gaara. Naruto was unfazed, and he smiled as he backed off.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about your sand defense," he sleepily said, scratching the back of his head.

Sarutobi chuckled at the scene as Gaara then reached out to shake his two friends' hands.

"Now I see what you mean when you claimed that your sand defends you from everything!"

After Gaara was reacquainted with his friends, he looked around Kakashi.

"Where is Hinata?" he asked, curious to find the pink-haired girl instead.

Both Naruto's and Sasuke's faces fell at the question.

"Gaara, this is our Genin team," Sasuke explained. "Hinata was put on another one. Sakura is our new teammate."

Gaara nodded his head, understanding how it must have made the two feel. He moved aside and the introduced Kairi to them.

"Naruto, Sasuke, this is my best friend Kairi. I met her sometime after you too left Suna, and we have been best friends ever since. She ran away from Suna with me."

Before they had the chance to properly, introduce themselves, all four of Team 7 stared at Gaara in shock.

"You ran away from Suna?!" they simultaneously asked, fearing for his safety.

Sarutobi sighed as he prepared to explain the situation Gaara had just told him.

________________________________________________________________________

_Later_

Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, and Hinata when she was ready, spent the reset of the day showing Gaara and his friend Kairi around Konoha. When they had heard about how Kairi almost died, and how Gaara fought with men in dark robes, they had been shocked. Sasuke, however, caught on to something and asked Gaara more about the men he fought.

"It's really hard to remember," Gaara had said. "The power and hatred that was going through me was blocking most of my thinking, and everything is like a foggy memory."

"Do you remember the type of clothing they were wearing?" Sasuke asked.

Gaara frowned as he dove into his memories.

"Well…they were wearing dark cloaks…with large collars…and this may sound weird, but I think I remember seeing red clouds or some strange shape on their cloaks."

At this, all of their eyes widened with surprise. It had been the same cloak the strange man from mist, who claimed to know Sasuke, had been wearing!

"Describe the people you fought!" Sasuke immediately said afterwards. "Did one of them look like me!?"

Gaara frowned again as he thought back.

"…No, not really. One had long black hair and pale skin, and the other had white hair. And then before I could really attack, a person with orange hair appeared out of nowhere and blasted me away with an invisible force. I think I was protected by the chakra around me, and I stood up to fight him again, but then suddenly he appeared in front of me in a flash, and the last thing I remember seeing was strange eyes with spirals in them."

At this, the entire group just stopped walking.

"Do you know this person?" Kairi asked, somewhat scared of their reaction.

It was now Naruto who responded.

"Yes. I think the one who knocked you out was my brother, Nagato."

Gaara gasped. Naruto's brother? The man had been so powerful, and had been on the same team that had killed the Kazekage.

"Look at my eyes, Gaara. Were these the same type of eyes you saw?"

Naruto activated his Rinnegan, and looked at Gaara. The red-head only needed to look into the eyes for a second before he recognized the spiral eyes.

"Yeah, those were the ones. Except his were orange like his hair, and not golden like yours."

Naruto nodded as he processed the information. His brother and Sasuke's brother were with the same organization, and for some reason he had attacked the Kazekage. He would have to think about this later.

The issue had come up were Gaara would stay if he were to move into Konoha. The Hokage had begun to offer Gaara an apartment, but Naruto had interrupted the old man, offering that Gaara should live in the Namikaze estate. Sasuke had agreed.

"My house is gigantic and it has a lot of empty guest rooms that could be cleaned up and ready to use! Gaara and Kairi can live in my Clan estate! Really, that would be great!"

Sarutobi had thought about it, and he thought that there wasn't that big of a deal. If Naruto and Sasuke both agreed, than Gaara and Kairi would be allowed to stay in their house.

Next, Sarutobi had asked whether or not Gaara and Kairi wanted to join the Ninja system of Konoha. Kairi had liked the idea, having never been allowed to join the Academy in Suna, and Gaara had thought that it was okay. Sarutobi had asked if Gaara would like to demonstrate his skills in front of the council so that they could decide what level he was, but he declined, saying that becoming Genin would be fine enough, so that he would be on the same level as Kairi.

"Luckily for you two," Sarutobi had said, "there is a spot for both on you on Team 11, which currently consists only of Anko as the Jonin sensei, and Sai, a friend who I have been told that you know."

Gaara and Kairi had accepted to be on that team.

When Gaara and Kairi had arrived at Naruto's house, they had been amazed at its hidden location and its amazing size. They had an entire _compound_ to themselves! Naruto and Sasuke had showed them their rooms, and around the entire house, before Hinata and Sai had to leave to go to sleep.

________________________________________________________________________

_That Night_

Gaara had been most impressed with the astral observatory that Naruto had. At night, it had a perfect view of the moon! It was such a better view than the one he had at Suna! Because he wasn't capable of falling asleep, he knew that he would be spending a lot of time up here.

He heard a noise, and he turned to see the hatch unlock and Naruto pop out onto the roof. He walked over to Gaara, and sat next to him.

"This all went by really quickly, huh," Naruto commented. This day had started normal, but then he had met one of his best friends! And now two more people were living in his house!

Gaara nodded.

After several moments of silence, Naruto had to ask a question that was bothering him.

"Gaara, why can't you sleep at night?"

Gaara sighed at the obvious question. He had known that it was going to be asked eventually, but he really didn't want to answer it.

"Naruto, you may not like me if answer you…you might become scared and hate me."

Naruto frowned at the remark.

"Well, your answer would have to be really strange or scary to get me not to like you, like you can't sleep because you snore so loud that you wake yourself up, or that you can't sleep because you sleep walk and kill people while you sleep! But I would still be your friend!"

Gaara smiled at Naruto's humor, and decided that he could trust his friend.

"I…I can't sleep, because I'm the Jinchuuriki of Okami, the One-Tailed Demon Wolf, and he doesn't allow me to sleep, because if I did, he would consume part of my soul and take over my body. Okami is also the source of my control of sand."

Naruto's eyes widened with surprise at the revelation. Gaara turned his head and closed his eyes, not wanting to hear what Naruto was going to say.

After several seconds, Naruto started laughing, which really scared Gaara.

"Why?! Why are you laughing? Do you think that it's funny?!" he asked, almost annoyed.

Naruto stopped, and shook his head quickly.

"No! It's only funny because I realized why nobody likes you at Suna. It's for the same reason that so many people hate me here!"

Now it was Gaara's turns to be surprised.

"You mean…you're a Jinchuuriki too?!!"

Naruto nodded.

"The Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi into me the day I was born. Ever since then I've held the demon inside of me. We're both Jinchuuriki!"

Gaara shook his head in amazement at the fact. He and Naruto really were alike in so many ways! It was incredible! Naruto was a Jinchuuriki, but he had so many friends!

"It's strange though," Naruto commented. "I've researched the bijuu and all about Jinchuuriki, but I never heard of a case were having one sealed inside of you causes you to lose sleep. I wonder…what does your seal look like?"

Gaara nodded and took off his shirt. His seal, unlike Naruto's, was on the middle of his upper back. Naruto looked at it, but because of his inexperience in seals, he was unable to really understand everything.

"It doesn't really look like mine, but besides that, I can't tell what's good or bad about it. I really want to study up on seals, but the Konoha library doesn't share much other than the basics on seals. I wish I could study more…"

Gaara put his shirt back on, and while he did, he asked Naruto,

"I noticed that you have a lot of friends around Konoha. Do they…do they know about your prisoner?"

Naruto looked down in sadness and shame as he shook his head.

"No, only Sasuke does. They're my friends now, but I don't know if they will be my friends anymore if I tell them about the Kyuubi."

"What about Hinata? Aren't you close with her?" Gaara asked.

Naruto nodded again.

"Yeah, she's my best friend. But still…I don't want her to become scared of me…"

Gaara looked up to the moon as he frowned in deep thought.

"Kairi is more than a best friend to me. But our friendship really didn't start to grow until we shared our deepest secrets with each other. I had thought that she would view me as a monster, but she didn't! And from then on, our friendship grew! You need to tell Hinata before she finds out herself. That way, you can form a bond with her, and if she ever finds out without you telling her, she will be hurt that you didn't trust her. Do you trust her?"

Naruto sighed and looked up to the moon with his friend.

"I do trust her. And I will tell her…"

The two friends talked for a while longer until Naruto went back into his house to go and sleep.

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Day, Training Grounds_

"So you two are going to be on my team, eh?" Anko asked, questioning them. "Well don't be so sure! You might not have what it takes to be on my squad!" she claimed, puffing out her chest in pride.

Gaara and Kairi nodded seriously and waited for Anko to continue.

"Why don't you have a spar with my other student, Sai, and I will see whether or not you two have potential. As a matter of fact, why don't you both go against Sai; I doubt either of you will be able to beat him!"

Anko sounded confident in her student of one week, but Sai himself swallowed nervously as Kairi formed into her fighting stance and Gaara merely crossed his arms.

"Ready?" Anko asked, jumping backwards out of the way. Sai jumped backwards too to create a safe distance between them. "Fight!"

Kairi seemed to close her eyes with concentration for a moment, and when she opened them, the black outlines of her iris seemed to deepen and a power chakra began emitting from her.

Sai took the initiative and he performed one of the techniques that he had invented himself. Taking his ink scroll, he unscrewed the cap and swung his arm upwards, causing ink to fly into the air.

"Cast!"

With a flash of his chakra, the ink turned itself into around fifteen falcons, which flew at high speeds towards the two new students.

Kairi jumped back behind Gaara, who in turn didn't even flinch. The falcons darted directly at him, but at the last moment sand erupted from the ground, shielding both Gaara and Kairi from the blast.

Sai frowned as the memories of Gaara's shield came back into his memory. But before he could think of a way around it, a blur appeared in his peripheral vision, and he leaned back just in time, for a fist to come flying by his face.

Sai was surprised at the silver-haired girl's speed, and he jumped backwards instead of attacking her off balance, so that he could calculate her movements more.

However, when he landed, he slipped and fell backwards because the ground he landed on had turned into sand. The sand climbed up his body and was about to crush him…

When Sai exploded into ink, which merely sunk back into the sand.

Sai appeared unharmed in the middle of the field, and he once more flung his ink into the air.

"Cast!"

This time, however, the ink turned into several leopards which charged at both Kairi and Gaara, who hadn't moved from his original spot.

Kairi disappeared from sight, avoiding the colorless ink creatures with a perfect shunshin, while the leopards charged at Gaara, hopefully distracting him for enough time.

Kairi reappeared in front of Sai, and attacked him with amazing speed, clearly outmatching him in taijutsu. Kairi pulled out a kunai and began slashing Sai with precision and accuracy, until he could no longer avoid the blows and she cut right through him.

But for the second time, Sai exploded into ink, which this time covered itself around the surprised Kairi.

"Cast!"

The real Sai activated his art and the ink around Kairi turned itself into a large snake, which constricted itself around her, preventing her from moving.

Gaara's eyes widened and he finished with the last of the leopards attacking him by crushing it with his sand. He was about to activate an advanced sand jutsu, when suddenly a countless amount of black ink snakes popped out of the ground underneath him, and they enwrapped him, continuously circling him and preventing him from moving. The weak sand which naturally defended Gaara was broken though from the pressure from the snakes.

_Damn! If only I had my sand gourd with me…there would be no way the snakes could even touch me! _

Sai relaxed as he observed the two captured people around him, thinking he had won. Suddenly, using pure strength, Kairi broke free from the large snake constricting her, and she charged at Sai.

She kicked him from underneath him, sending him high into the air. Then, in an amazing burst of speed, she appeared behind him in air, preparing to attack.

_This time I'll get you for sure!_

However, right before she could attack him, the chakra gushing through her subsided and she turned back to her normal state. Her bloodline limit had deactivated itself, and at the worst time! She didn't have a large enough chakra system to maintain the technique for long, as it continuously used her chakra.

Sai took this moment of indecision from her to turn in air and knock her back to the ground. Luckily, before she could hit the ground, sand appeared below her, comforting her blow. Gaara, who was incased in snakes, burst into sand, and reappeared in sand outside of the ink prison.

Sai threw several kunai down at Gaara, to finish the fight with his plan. Sure enough, Gaara's automatic sand appeared to block the kunai, but Sai wasn't done.

"Cast!"

The ink that Gaara had used to crush the leopards turned itself into more snakes in the very shield of sand in front of Gaara, and they reached out quickly, biting him in the neck.

Gaara gasped as he immediately fell to the ground, paralyzed and unable to move.

Kairi looked in shock at Gaara who had fallen. She had never imagined that someone would be able to subdue Gaara, and didn't notice that Sai had crept up behind her, holding a blade to her throat.

"Enough!" Anko called out, stopping the fight.

Sai nodded and backed away. Breathing heavily from exhaustion.

Anko walked up to Kairi and Gaara and smiled at them.

"I like you two! One of you is a specialist in attacking in close range, while the other is a specialist in defense and attacking from long range. Sai himself is a medium range fighter. I think you two will make a great addition to Team 11! You both pass!"

Sai smiled and walked up to his new teammates. He helped Kairi up and walked over to Gaara, who was still lying paralyzed on the ground. He formed a one handed seal and deactivated the poison inside of him, giving Gaara movement again.

When Gaara stood up, he frowned.

"Fighting without sand all around me is hard enough, but it's even harder when I don't have my own sand in a gourd. I was turning the ground beneath all of us into sand, but I didn't have enough time to convert all of it to use for jutsu. I really need another sand gourd…"

Sai smiled at him and together the new team went to the Hokage's office to get their first real mission together.

On the way there, Kairi couldn't help but mention to Sai,

"What's with you and snakes? You created so many of them!"

Sai frowned thoughtfully as Anko laughed.

"I guess I'm rubbing off on him!" Anko said, finding the comment really funny.

________________________________________________________________________

_That Night_

Naruto and Hinata were sitting together on top of the Hokage monument. Naruto had asked her to come with him for a moment, to tell her his deepest secret. He had told Sai about his prisoner earlier that day, and Sai had told Naruto that he didn't think of the blonde any differently, to Naruto's pleasure. He hoped Hinata would take it the same way.

Hinata couldn't help but blush a little as Naruto grabbed her hand and led her to the top of the top of the monument. The moon was lighting up Konoha romantically above them, and she couldn't help but imagine her fantasy unraveling.

"What is it Naruto-kun?" she asked him, still holding his hands.

"Hinata, I need to tell you something very important. I can't go on another day without telling you."

Hinata looked up at him curiously.

"Tell me what?" she asked.

He sighed deeply as he looked into her eyes.

"Hinata…I love you. I love you with all my heart and I think I always have!"

With that, he pulled her into a kiss, and the violins started playing beautiful melodies…

"…Hinata!" Naruto said rather loudly, awakening her from her daydream.

She shook her head, and blushed with embarrassment. This wasn't the first time that this had happened to her, and it was really humiliating to her.

"Y-Yes Naruto-kun?" she responded, curious as to what he really wanted to say to her in private.

"Hinata-chan, I need to tell you something very important. I can't go on another day without telling you."

She looked up at him curiously.

"What is it?" she asked, noticing the slight similarity to her daydream.

Naruto sighed deeply and looked into her eyes with an almost pleading look.

"Do you remember what happened twelve years ago, on my birthday?" he asked her, trying to start out simple.

She nodded.

"Y-Yes! The Kyuubi attacked Konoha and the Yondaime killed it!"

Naruto shook his head. That was the lesson that they had taught them in the Academy.

"He didn't kill it; he wasn't strong enough. No one was!" Naruto said, squeezing her hands tightly.

Her confusion allowed her to forget that Naruto was holding her hands.

"W-What do you m-mean? Is the Kyuubi still alive!?" she asked, starting to sound scared.

Naruto nodded.

"Yes, he is. But don't worry, we're all safe. The Yondaime didn't kill the beast. So instead, he sealed it inside of a newborn baby so that it wouldn't be able to attack the village ever again."

Hinata's eyes widened as realization hit her.

"Th-Th-Th-Then, he s-sealed it inside of…y-y-you?"

Naruto let go of her and turned around, fearing for her reaction.

"Yes. I am the jailor of the Kyuubi, also known as a Jinchuuriki. I know that you might want to run away from me now, but that's okay. I just thought that I could trust you enough to tell you, but I understand if…if you don't want to be my friend anymore and think that I'm a monster."

When Naruto said the last apart about no longer being friends with her, she immediately snapped out of her daze and raised her voice.

"So…that's why all the villagers give you cold looks…" she whispered, anger filling up in her eyes. Naruto cringed as he thought that she was about to yell at him for deceiving her all this time.

"I don't care that you have the Kyuubi sealed inside of you!" she nearly screamed, surprising him. "I don't care what you do! I will always be your friend! I don't care if you try to kill me and run away from me, I will be your friend no matter what, Naruto-kun! And the villagers are all assholes if they think that they can call you a demon and be mean to you! You are the most amazing person I know! You treat me so kindly, you always care about me, and you always protect me and help me! If they think you're a demon for something that's not even your fault…That's bullshit!"

Naruto's eyes widened with her language and he nearly fell over in shock from the tone in her voice.

Hinata had never felt angrier in her life. But when the anger began to subside, and she realized what she said, she gasped and hoped that she hadn't said so much.

After several moments of silence, Naruto began to snicker. Then, the snickering turned into laughter, until he was rolling on the ground, cracking up with tears coming out of his eyes.

Now Hinata really started to blush with embarrassment. Why was he laughing at her?

When Naruto was able to calm down, he stood up and explained his behavior.

"Here I was, thinking that you would want to run away from me, and then you scream out all of _that_! You're the best, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata's embarrassment slowly went away and she pushed her fingers together in bad habit.

"I would never run away from you, Naruto-kun," she quietly said, just loud enough so that he could barely hear here.

Naruto smiled at here and pulled her into a hug, smiling like crazy. Hinata couldn't help but smile herself as she felt the happiness radiate from him.

"Good," Naruto said, pulling back so he could look into her face. "Because I would never let you leave me."

________________________________________________________________________

_The Next Day, Naruto's House, Morning_

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were all assembled in Naruto's kitchen, with their sensei standing over them, with a somewhat serious look on his face. There were no missions for them today, as Kakashi and Anko had given them all the day off. Gaara and Kairi, because they now lived with Naruto and Sasuke, were there as well, and Sai was just to be with his new team.

"What's up, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. The Jonin had asked them that they all meet together that morning.

Kakashi pulled out a scroll and held it out so everyone could see it rolled up in his hand.

"I have something for you, Naruto, which I think all of you should be here to see."

Sasuke looked at the scroll with curiosity.

"What is it? Is there some sort of jutsu in the scroll?" he asked, curious like the rest of them.

Kakashi shook his head.

"It's even more important. Listen carefully. In this scroll is a letter. Naruto, it's a letter from your older brother."

Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke became deathly silent at the revelation. Nagato had left them a letter?! But why now!? Had Kakashi just found it?

Kakashi continued.

"Before Nagato left with his team, he gave me a letter and instructed me to give it to you, Naruto, when you became a Genin. The scroll had escaped my memory, but I luckily was reminded of it, recently. I have never looked at it, and I think it needs your blood to open it. Here you go."

He tossed the scroll to Naruto, who caught it and looked at it with excitement. Gaara, Kairi and Sai, who had never really known Nagato, couldn't possibly understand how excited Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke were.

Naruto bit his thumb, and he allowed a drip of blood to drop on the scroll. A seal on the scroll instantly unlocked, allowing Naruto to open it, which he slowly and carefully did, with shaky hands.

Instead of a long letter, like they had expected, there were only a couple of words jotted down on the paper.

_Go to our library with an open mind to learn, and open eyes to read. Take with you only your two friends._

Naruto led the letter out loud, and he was just as confused with it as everybody else. Despite the confusion, Naruto, with Hinata and Sasuke, walked up to the library in the house while the others stayed in the kitchen, waiting for their return.

________________________________________________________________________

_Naruto's House, Library of Sealing_

The library in their house went mostly unused…because it had no use. When Naruto and Hinata had first explored it, they had been surprised to find out that all of the scrolls of the shelves were…blank.

________________________________________________________________________

_Flashback_

_The room the two walked into was unique as well. This room was filled with scrolls that were placed on shelves which surrounded the room. Strangely, when Naruto walked in and flicked the light switch on, the room was filled with candle light instead of light made from electricity. In the center of the room there was a desk with an ink brush and a sheet of paper on it. Curious, Naruto walked forward to investigate it. Hinata, meanwhile, walked around the room to see the scrolls on the shelves._

_When Naruto reached the center of the desk, he found out that there were quite a few blank sheets of paper on it. Shuffling through each one, he wondered why the papers were blank. He looked through several other drawers in the desk, only to find more blank paper. But then, if there was blank paper in the drawers, why would there be any on the desk?_

_Hinata looked around the scrolls in the room. Why would a room meant for reading only be lit wit dim candles? She doubted she could read much in this light. When she reached the shelves surrounding the walls, she was surprised at what she saw. None of the scrolls appeared to have titles on them, separating them from one another. They all just looked…like each other. She reached up and picked a random scroll, opening it only to find out that the scroll was…blank as well?_

_They were all blank!_

"_Naruto-kun," she called out to the boy who was still puzzling over why there were many blank sheets of paper scattered around the desk. He turned and walked over to her._

"_What is it?" he asked, noticing the scroll in her hand._

"_All of the scrolls are blank!" she exclaimed. _

_Naruto raised an eyebrow and checked for himself. Indeed, all of the scrolls really were blank!_

"_This is just like the paper at the desk! Why would my family have shelves of scrolls only for them…wait…Hinata, how many scrolls to you have?" he suddenly asked, noticing something strange on the shelf._

_Hinata held out her hand. "Just one," she responded._

_Naruto pointed to what he was looking at._

"_Then why is there another missing scroll right in that spot?" he asked._

_Hinata shook her head and shared the same confusion as he. She put the scroll she was holding and returned it to the shelf as they walked out of the room through the door. _

_What a strange room…_

________________________________________________________________________

_End of Flashback_

The room was still lit with dim candles, which strangely lit themselves when Naruto turned on the light switch, and there were still blank scrolls all around them.

"What do you think he meant when he said to enter here with 'an open mind and open eyes'?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shrugged.

"I have no idea."

Hinata thought deeply to that one day when they first had come here. There had been one scroll missing, but they later had found out that it was hanging on the back of the front door. That scroll had been blank as well…but Naruto had managed to see it with his Rinnegan!! Why hadn't she thought of that before?!

"He means you have to have your Rinnegan activated!!" she claimed, surprising the other two. "Remember the one scroll you read Naruto, which was blank to everyone else!? It was the one that taught you how to create a seal that would allow Sasuke and me to enter the compound by creating chakra!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he too realized it. He made a small note to make two other seals for Kairi and Gaara as well.

"Well, try it out!" Sasuke encouraged.

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes, pushing chakra into them. When he opened them, his iris turned golden with dark spirals circling it, and he saw the room with a new clarity.

He was immediately shocked with the difference that he saw. First, the room was no longer dimly lit. Instead, he could see everything without difficulty. And second, the scrolls on the walls that had been blank before were now all filled with titles and other writing.

"I…I can see everything!!" Naruto commented, walking up and taking one of the blank scrolls. To Hinata and Sasuke, it looked like he was just looking at a blank scroll. But to Naruto, he could read the title: Seal of Secrets

He opened up the scroll, only to find the entire page covered in a beautiful and intricate kanji that would nearly be impossible to memorize. But to Naruto, the image of the seal instantly burned into his head, and the meaning of the seal came to him as well.

"This seal…it says that when activated, something that you write can only be viewed with the Rinnegan! That's why everything seems blank to you two!!"

Sasuke and Hinata both thought that it was interesting, but a thought crept up into their minds. If only Naruto could read the scrolls, then why were they even told to go with him?

Suddenly, Naruto remembered something and he walked to the desk, which had been previously covered in blank papers. He walked over, and most of them truly were blank. But the paper that was on top was covered in writing…the same writing that had been on the letter Kakashi gave him!

He picked up the blank paper, and read it aloud for his friends.

"_Congratulations on activating your Rinnegan and becoming a Genin, Naruto-otouto. This room is a very special room; it contains the scrolls of seals unique to the Namikaze Clan that can only be read by the Rinnegan. You may have realized from the first seal that you read, that the Rinnegan automatically memorizes the seal which you read, and you can activate the seal yourself whenever you want. There are many seals which you can memorize; helpful seals that can start a small fire, or powerful seals which can paralyze a person upon eye-contact._

_Anyways, you can read these seals later. Go now and remove the scroll which is titled: Seal of Sleep, and remove it from the shelf. The scroll is located on the middle shelf on in the back of the room. What is inside the scroll is not what's important. Behind of where the scroll was placed, there is a seal; the same seal that you use to enter your house and the Namikaze compound. Push your chakra into the seal._"

When Naruto finished reading aloud, he did as instructed and walked to the back of the room, looking on the middle shelf. When he found the scroll labeled: Seal of Sleep, he pulled it out, placing it elsewhere on the shelf. Sure enough, there was a seal that he could see on the wall behind the shelf.

"Is there a seal there?" Sasuke asked, standing right behind Naruto.

Naruto nodded and reached his finger forward, pushing chakra into it.

The moment he made contact with the seal, a snapping sound rang through the room, and they turned around quickly, looking to the ceiling.

A hatch moved to the side, revealing a square hole in the ceiling, and moments after, a ladder fell down from the room above, perfectly landing on the ground.

The three of them gasped as they watched the ladder fall down. Slowly and carefully, Naruto walked up to the ladder, and grabbed hold of it. He put a little pressure on it, to make sure that it would hold, and when he was sure that it was safe, he climbed up it, with Sasuke and Hinata following behind.

________________________________________________________________________

_Secret Library of the Namikaze_

When they climbed up the ladder, and made it to the top, Naruto was shocked to see a room about half the size as the one below it. It was like a miniature library, with three shelves on the walls, filled with scrolls.

In the middle of a room there was a desk, similar to the one in the room below them, and Naruto walked up to it.

"This room…I can see all of the scrolls on the shelves!" Sasuke exclaimed. The room was lit up with candles lighter than the room below, but both Sasuke and Hinata could read the titles.

But Naruto wasn't paying attention to that. What caught his attention were the scrolls placed on the desk.

"Guys…come look at this," Naruto said, motioning them over to the desk.

Both Hinata and Sasuke gasped when they looked at four scrolls. Three were all lined up next to each other, and they were the sizes of normal scrolls. The other one was larger and in the middle. But it was the titles of theses scrolls that surprised them.

One of the scrolls was titled 'Hinata'. Another one was titled 'Naruto'. And one of them to the left was titled 'Sasuke'. But the larger in the middle was titled 'destiny', and there was a symbol of the three golden triangles otherwise called the Triforce, the three tomoes of the Sharingan, and an eye which faced vertically.

These would be the scrolls that will change the lives of these three friends forever.

________________________________________________________________________

_End_

That chapter was hard to write, and a lot of things had to be rushed. I sorry that Gaara and Kairi coming to Konoha seemed rush, but I needed to get it all done with this chapter.

Thank you all for reading and a special thanks for those who voice their opinions and review, fav, or alert my story. So far, I have 112 reviews, and 144 favs!! That's awesome! But there are more favorites than there are reviews…come on, you shy fanfiction readers! If you think this story is good enough to go on your favs list, then please review and tell me what you think of the story so far!

No power list this time; Naruto and his friends hadn't really done much to get stronger. Stay reading for the Omake and have a nice day!

-williams5505

________________________________________________________________________

Omake: Painfully Dense

________________________________________________________________________

_Ramen Stand, Noon_

Ichiraku sighed as he placed his tenth bowls of ramen in front of the two kids who ate it like there was no tomorrow. Naruto had been a major source of his income over the years, but it looked as if his profit would be doubling because Naruto's new red-headed friend loved the noodles just as much as him!!

Naruto and Gaara began wolfing down the next round of ramen, while Sasuke began reading his Icha-Icha Paradise book, having finished his one book. Sai, on the other side, just smiled as he waited for his friends to finish.

When Gaara and Naruto finished, Ichiraku gave them a bill, and Naruto and Gaara got out their wallets to pay for the meal.

When Gaara got out his wallet, he was surprised to find two objects in his pocket. He pulled out the other object, and he was surprised to see Kairi's wallet in their.

"It looks like Kairi left her wallet," Gaara pointed out, handing his own money to Ichiraku.

"But won't she need it?" Naruto asked him. "Hinata told me that she was going up to enjoy the day with Kairi to get to know her better, because they are the only two girls in our 'group' of friends. She told me that they would go out shopping and doing other things throughout Konoha, so I think Kairi will kinda need her money," Naruto pointed out, being ever the wise one.

"Well do you have any idea where they are right now?" Sasuke asked, somehow paying attention to the conversation.

Naruto appeared to be frowning painfully, looking back in his memories.

"Um…yeah! She said that they would be in the hot springs for a while!"

Gaara smiled and stood up, preparing to go there.

"Great, I'm gonna go and give her wallet back now," he said, walking away.

Naruto, Sai, and Sasuke looked at each other for a moment, before they dashed out of their seats to go and stop Gaara.

"Wait! Gaara, you can't do that!" Sai said.

Gaara looked curiously at the pale boy.

"Why not?" he asked, having no idea. Apparently, he was even denser than Naruto.

Naruto answered for Sai.

"Because you can't go into the women's section of the spa! It's not allowed!!"

Gaara shrugged his shoulders and continued walking toward the springs.

"It'll only be for a second, and I'm sure she won't mind."

The three friends tried unsuccessfully to stop Gaara from making a big mistake, but the persistent red-head walked all of the way to the hot springs, wanting to give Kairi her wallet back.

_Hot Springs_

When they arrived there, Naruto, Sai and Sasuke looked on in fear as Gaara walked right through the women's section by the entrance, without a second thought.

The three of them gulped as they rushed in as well, trying to save their new friend from certain destruction.

Eventually, Gaara walked through the changing room area, were all of the women's cloths could be seen hanging up, unclosing their bras and underwear, which caused Sasuke and Naruto to blush, and he made it to the final door which led out to the springs.

The three of them desperately tried to grab on to Gaara to hold him back, but his automatic sand defense kept pushing them away.

"Gaara, no!!" Naruto whispered, standing in front of the doorway, his last attempt to save Gaara.

"Naruto, you're being immature. Just because they are cleansing their bodies doesn't really mean anything. I'm just going in there to return her wallet, or at least tell her that I have it."

Sasuke and Sai both jumped next to Gaara to block the doorway, holding their ground and not letting Gaara past.

The Jinchuuriki of Suna eventually got annoyed, and he summoned his sand to push the group forward or out of his way.

Unfortunately, Gaara underestimated his force, and the ending result was the door flying open from the pressure and Naruto, Sai and Sasuke all flying through it, piling on top of each other outside.

Apparently, it was a pretty crowded day for the springs, as there were at least twenty women enjoying the springs, _naked_ in the water and now all staring at the intruders in shock. Hinata turned a deep crimson upon seeing Naruto and covered up her lady parts unconsciously under the water, sinking so deep that only her eyes were visible. When Naruto saw her he nervously waved a 'hello' to her, causing her to blush deeper and completely submerge underneath the water.

Kairi had a sense of humor and chuckled as she sensed the rage coming from the other women around her.

"LET'S GET THEM!!!" a call rang out from one of the women.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sai stared in horror at all the women around them, who quickly got out of the water and put towels on. The women, with amazing speed and power, began the pursuit of destroying the intruders, and the three boys ran out the way they came, fearing for their lives.

Naruto, Sai and Sasuke would laugh, smile, and scoff at this memory later on in their lives as one of the biggest beatings they had ever imagined. Apparently an angered woman became on a high Jonin level automatically (though some were Jonin), and they were beat up so badly that they would need the next few days off to recover from them.

Gaara smirked to himself as the woman merely ran around him, not being able to touch him because of his sand. When the coast was clear, and the woman were out in the streets pummeling the three, Gaara walked into the springs, right to the edge of where Kairi and Hinata were, them being the only ones left in the springs.

Now it was Kairi's turn to blush a deep red as the object of her affection stood over her while she was naked. Her whole face flushed red and she sunk underneath the water to the same level Hinata had been at, with only here eyes above the water.

"What are you doing, G-Gaara-kun?" she mumbled underwater, bubbles rising to the surface.

Gaara smiled at her and showed her the wallet he had brought.

"Here's your wallet, Kairi-chan! I found it in my pocket earlier today; I most have accidentally taken it this morning. I guess I'll go and put it by your clothes, since you can't take it now."

Gaara turned and walked across the water using chakra, and when he reached the door, he turned around and waved at Kairi and Hinata.

"See you later! Have a relaxing day, Kairi-chan!"

He then left, dropping off the wallet by Kairi's clothes like he said he would.

When his footsteps were out of hearing range, Kairi and Hinata sat up to their normal positions.

Both were still blushing, though Kairi was recovering faster and was now frowning thoughtfully.

"Hey Hinata?" she asked, turning to the shy Hyuuga next to her.

Hinata hummed at her in response.

"Gaara didn't even try to look at my body through the water once!! Do you think that's a bad sign, or a good sign? I don't know if I respect him more for it, or feel like I don't have much to look at!"

Hinata's eyes widened at the question. She knew that Kairi liked Gaara the same way she liked Naruto, but the silver-haired girl was more open about it.

"U-U-U-Um, I-I think th-that he respects you a-a lot, K-Kairi," she responded, very nervously.

Kairi frowned as she thought about it.

"Maybe. Do you think that my boobs aren't big enough for him to look at?" she asked again, measuring herself.

Hinata blushed red again and quickly turned around, trying not to look.

"N-No, y-y-you h-h-have a-a g-g-good s-size, I th-think," she responded.

Kairi smiled at the compliment.

"Thanks! But I wish mine were as big as yours; then I would catch his attention for sure! That reminds me, how come, with your body, you can't get Naruto to 'like' you?"

Hinata continued blushing and shrugged.

"I-I w-w-wish h-h-he would n-n-notice m-me more," she said, with a slightly sad tone to her voice.

Kairi laughed at her.

"Don't worry; I'm sure he'll catch on eventually. And if he doesn't, I promise that I'll set you guys up myself!"

Hinata's eyes widened at the comment.

"Th-th-th-thank you, K-Kairi."

Kairi laughed again, and together they enjoyed the rest of the spa together, while the sounds of Naruto, Sasuke and Sai screams of pain echoed throughout Konoha.

________________________________________________________________________

_End of Omake_


	11. Destiny

Thanks for moving on!

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Let's Begin!

The Second Born

Chapter 11: Destiny

_Ice Mountains_

Far east of Konoha, beyond the Mist Village, two dark figures could be seen walking through a heavy snowstorm. The snow and ice in the air pushed against them, and they struggled until they reached a cave which they entered, sheltering them from the snow.

One of the two figures threw his straw hat to the side and turned to his partner in irritation.

"How much longer must we travel until we reach our destination?" he hissed out, angered.

The second cloaked Akatsuki took off his hat as well, and with a hand-seal, it disappeared.

"Have patience, Itachi!" he said, smirking at his partner. "We will travel through this cave upwards until we reach the village. I'm surprised that you are showing any emotion; you have become famous within the organization for being completely emotionless, along with our leader, Pain."

Itachi ignored the remark.

"This little mission of ours really seems mindless. I'm surprised _Pain _even allowed you to go on this trip! How much does this sword mean to you?!"

Sub-Zero smirked again and walked forward through the cave.

"It will become as great to me as your Mangekyou."

_Lin Kuei Village_

After the Lin Kuei had escaped from Kiri, they had fled east and into the mountains where they would no longer be bothered by Kiri's military. The 'Bloody Mist', during the rule of their dark Mizukage later to be known as Madara, had banished and killed all those who had a kekke genkai. The powers of cold…the Lin Kuei were the first targeted by the Kage.

Now, the Clan lived in peace in the mountains, having their own large compound/village, (much, much larger than the Hyuuga's) in a valley. Snow blanketed the area and mountains surrounded them, providing them with an ideal territory for their living. Food and supplies were shipped in through carts and by boat through a simpler way, but the two Akatsuki wished to enter the compound through a secret entrance.

Sub-Zero deeply inhaled as the sense of nostalgia passed through him after seeing his home. He had departed from the village years ago, taking his younger sister back to Kiri so that she would have a better growing environment. He no longer really cared where she was now or if she was alive. For all he knew, she could've grown up not even being a ninja at all, which was what most likely happened.

Itachi with his Sharingan activated, was somewhat shocked at all of the powerful chakra signatures he saw.

"All of your clan members are capable of activating your doujutsu, correct?" Itachi asked his partner.

The doujutsu he was referring to was the one he discovered when he first saw Sub-Zero alongside the true Leader of Akatsuki. He had glared at him with his Sharingan activated, hoping to cast a minor genjutsu at him, but the casting had failed miserably and it merely seemed to reflect off of Sub-Zero's hardened eyes.

Sub-Zero had that doujutsu activated right now. It didn't really serve as an attacking doujutsu; it was purely defensive. When activated, no genjutsu would affect the user. Also, it covered the user's eyes in a light blue color; the color of ice.

"Yes, all ninja of my clan have the doujutsu."

Itachi frowned thoughtfully. While he indeed knew a lot of ninjutsu and his taijutsu was excellent, he truly excelled in genjutsu. But this clan had prospered into its own minor village! There were so many ninja; would he be able to fight them all without using genjutsu?

"Very well," Itachi said, stepping forward. "Let the slaughter begin."

_Secret Village Hiding Place_

While Itachi was outside, still defending himself against all of the Lin Kuei, Sub-Zero had slipped into the secret clan hiding place, which he of course knew about. When he had left the village, he hadn't been strong enough to kill his father _and_ take the guarded sword. Killing his own father had taken all of his energy and before he could steal the sword more ninja had come to attack him at the time.

But now, he was much stronger.

As he walked through the tunnels, he came upon the one room which contained its own shrine, dedicated to a Legendary Elemental Sword. The Ice Fang.

The sword was a wider than a regular katana, and it was slightly longer. Its handle was completely black, and the cross-guard came up into two points alongside the blade.

The blade itself was completely made of ice, though it was harder than steel. Sub-Zero's eyes widened as he reached up to take it…

But right before he could, a person entered the room behind him.

"It's _you_!" the intruder claimed, pointing at Sub-Zero. He was wearing the same outfit that Sub-Zero was wearing under the Akatsuki robes.

Sub-Zero smiled at the man.

"I see. You must have been nominated to be the new Sub-Zero, after I killed my father," he said.

The intruder nodded.

"Today you will die, Hyouketsu. You never earned the right to be the village leader; you never earned the right to be called Sub-Zero!"

Sub-Zero frowned at the mention of his real name, which he had not heard for many years.

"You are wrong, foolish leader. The title 'Sub-Zero' goes to the strongest ninja in the village, and by killing my father, the previous 'Sub-Zero', I earned that titled. And I certainly am stronger than you!"

With that, he grabbed the sword behind him, feeling the power and chakra of the sword flowing through him.

"Fear my power!"

Sub-Zero slammed the sword into the ground, and the village leader's eyes widened before he was engulfed in frost.

_Naruto's House_

Naruto sat down at the desk on which the scrolls had been placed on. He, Hinata and Sasuke had decided to first read the scrolls that had their names on them, before they moved on to the bigger scroll.

He carefully unrolled the scroll and he once again recognized the writing that was on the paper. And just like before, the writing wasn't long.

_Naruto,_

_This is your older brother, Nagato, if you were unable to figure that out by now. I hope you know that I am proud of you for making it this far without me, and for becoming a Genin as well. _

_You are most likely asking so many questions to yourself, ones that have not been answered for many years. So let me start of with the most basic. Itachi, Konan and I did not kill the Uchiha Clan out of anger or anything else. There was a good reason as to why we left you in the village._

_First of all, the Uchiha were the ones responsible for the death of every other Namikaze Clan member. When they were the Police Force, they ordered the Namikaze to be front line in the defense of the Kyuubi's attack. Not only that, but they had planned to perform a coup d'état and take over control of the village. We had originally planned to help you with your adventure in the future, but we were needed to protect the village. We were ordered by the Hokage to kill every Uchiha who was a part of the plan to overtake Konoha, and unfortunately, everyone aside from Sasuke was. _

_But that turned out to be some sort of a good thing. Because we will be banished from Konoha, we will be able to join the very group that you will end up fighting. We will join the organization Akatsuki._

_You may have seen this organization by now, or you definitely will in the future. Or group consists of elite S-ranked ninja who were dark cloaks with red clouds on them. If you ever see one of us, I advise you to flee unless you are far above the level of a Jonin._

_What is important about this organization is its leader. But you will find out about him soon enough in the scroll labeled destiny._

_There is so much I want to say to you, like how I regret having to leave and how I wish I could be with you training you right now. But I do not have much time, and you need to know the basics of everything._

_Hopefully by now you know that you are a Jinchuuriki. You are the jailor of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Kyuubi. If you have not figured this out by now, don't panic and ask the Hokage about it. I'm sure he will tell you. _

_The Kyuubi is a Bijuu and a creature of immense evil. However, I will make sure that he will never be able to overtake youwhen I touch my finger to your forehead and activate your powers._

_Naruto, you are the hero of legend, and it is your destiny to finally kill the Leader of Akatsuki. You have the Triforce seal on the back of your right hand, or at least you will, when you activate that power. If you haven't any control over that power than you must speak with the Kyuubi on how to activate it. In order to speak with the Kyuubi, you must meditate and clear your mind, and go into your conscious. You will learn more about the Triforce in the other scroll._

_I also want you to know about your heritage. Our mother was a great woman. I have pictures of her in one of the scrolls on the wall in this room. Her name was Kushina Uzumaki of the Uzumaki Clan, until she married your father. Your father, and the Clan head of the Namikaze, was Minato Namikaze._

_But you would know him better as the Yondaime Hokage, the one who sealed the Kyuubi into you. _

_  
I know you must be really shocked to hear this, but it is true. He has also left you a letter, and I placed it on the shelf. _

_I can't write any more to you now. Grow strong, and one day, we will meet again._

Naruto put the scroll down as he felt his emotions flowing over him. His brother left the village because he was forced to kill the Uchiha Clan! And his father was the Yondaime!!

The others weren't doing much better emotionally. Sasuke had his eyes closed and Naruto couldn't tell what he was feeling, and Hinata was openly crying after reading her letter.

After several minutes, when they were able to compose themselves, they shared with each other what was written.

"Y-You're the son of the Yondaime?!" Sasuke asked after Naruto told him. Naruto nodded his head. He was shocked as well. Hinata was astounded and she didn't know how to respond.

"I can't believe that the Uchiha planned to take over the village," Naruto commented. They all knew now as to why their siblings left. But while it was a good reason, but Sasuke was still infuriated that they had to go through such a thing.

After they talked about what was in their letters, they moved on to the large scroll labeled 'destiny'. Naruto picked it up, and slowly opened it, reading aloud what he saw.

_Long before the ninja villages came to be, clans of ninja were scattered across the map. Clans with powerful bloodlines ruled over the smaller clans._

_There were three types of beings that populated the land: Angels, Humans and Demons. The divinities made it that the humans were the weaker forms of life out of these main three. Angels and Demons battled with equal power until they separated themselves into different realms of living. The Angels fled to the kingdoms in the sky and the Demons retreated to the empires of the Underworld,_

Sasuke and Hinata looked at each other with wide eyes.

"A-Angels?" Hinata asked, baffled at the idea that angels existed.

Naruto nodded.

"I have actually talked with the Kyuubi before, and what he told me sounds a lot like this. He said that angels exist."

Sasuke remained quiet and allowed Naruto to continue.

_The divinities, seeing the unequal power between the three forms of life, breathed a second breath of life into certain humans, giving the select few bloodline limits to help them fight off the demons that remained on the earth. Soon, all of the weaker forms of demons fled to the Underworld, and only the Bijuu remained. _

Naruto paused to explain more of this.

"I remember the Kyuubi mentioning this too. He also said that that was when the bloodline limit of the Senju Clan was created, to help fight off the demons."

_At this time there were three bloodline limits that rose above all others. The legendary doujutsus in their purest forms: the Tenrai Rinnegan, the Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan, and the Shinsei Byakugan, all balancing each other out in power. _

_However, an evil king began to rise and he stole a new power. Using his new abilities which he somehow achieved, he spread his hatred across the land and he single-handedly started the first great shinobi war, causing all of the clans to fight each other in the name of good and evil._

_Gyatso Namikaze, the man that was given the Rinnegan, quickly befriended the Uchiha and the Hyuuga in hopes that together they could defeat the evil king who had stolen an even stronger bloodline than the three. The power of the dark lord was so great that even the Bijuu cowered in fear before his awesome might._

_Together, the three doujutsu users fought the king, and there were almost able to overcome his might. But in the end, they were not able to kill the man. Gyatso, realizing that they had failed and soon the world would be engulfed in evil, gave his life and using the legendary blade which he created, he sealed the evil king into an endless abyss with the new power that the divinities had given him, the power of the Triforce. However, he knew that one day the King would return to claim his throne once more._

_Gyatso had one son, and through him spread the bloodline limit of the Namikaze. Hakoda Uchiha and Kyoshi Hyuuga did similar. The two remaining legends were curious as to why Gyatso's son didn't have the legendary Triforce on the back of his hand like Gyatso did. They were also curious as to why their own children didn't possess the seals of power that were on themselves: the Sharingan Seal on the back of Hakoda's neck and the All Seeing Eye seal on Kyoshi's forehead. _

_Many years later, just before the forming of the ninja villages, the evil king returned, just as Gyatso had foreseen. The vengeful king returned even stronger than before and all hope was lost as he started the second shinobi war allying himself with the evil clans. There was no hope for good to overcome evil, until another hero appeared seemingly from no where. He was a part of the Namikaze Clan and he had the special power that Gyatso had. The young man quickly mastered all of the elements and with the power of the god-given Triforce as well as his Tenrai Rinnegan and the Legendary Sword that Gyatso himself had used, he single-handedly faced the Evil King in mortal combat._

_But it was too late, for the Evil King's power had grown too strong and the Namikaze realized that even with his Tenrai Rinnegan and Legendary sword, he could not defeat the Dark Lord. He had failed, just like the three legends before him and in the end all he could do was sacrifice his life to seal the evil king using the master of all swords which Gyatso once had done, knowing that the Evil King would return once more, even more powerful than before._

_The Second Namikaze to possess the Tenrai Rinnegan as well as the Triforce was Namikaze Rinku. Once he died, the power of the Triforce went with him. But legend tells that just like the Evil King will return, the divinities will choose a new person to wield the power of the Triforce and the Tenrai Rinnegan._

From this point on, the original writing stopped and it appeared to now be Nagato's writing.

_Naruto, _

_You are the hero destined to finally kill the Evil King, who is now the leader of the Akatsuki. With my Rinnegan, I was able to spot out the outline of the Triforce on the back of your hand, and I researched what I could find about the subject until I read this legend. After further research, I realized that Sasuke was the one to possess the Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan, and Hinata is the one who has the Shinsei Byakugan!_

Sasuke unconsciously touched the seal of a Sharingan that was on the back of his neck. Ever since he first activated his Mangekyou, the seal had remained on his neck and shoulder.

"But then why can't we see the Triforce on your hand?" Sasuke asked. "And why can't we see a seal on Hinata at all?"

Naruto shrugged and continued to read.

_The Sharingan seal will most likely stay visible on Sasuke if he is ever to activate his, though yours will not until you contact your inner being, which you will have to ask the Kyuubi about. Hinata's won't be seen until she activates hers and the Eye of Kyoshi will only be visible on her forehead when she activates it._

Hinata let out a small sigh of relief. When she was listening to the legend, she wondered what it would be like to have to walk around everywhere with a third eye on her forehead,

_Also, in order to fully use your Triforce power and Tenrai Rinnegan, you must master all of the elements. Naruto, you will eventually have to leave Konoha and for this I am sorry. But you will have to travel the world and seek out masters of each element to learn from them. When you are done, you will completely be in control of your Rinnegan and Triforce and with Sasuke and Hinata you will be able to fight the Evil King. _

_Trust me, you will learn more about this, and when I meet you again I will clarify more things. I will talk with you again when you master the elements, Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata. I wish you three the best of luck._

_Later_

When the three had come to terms that they were supposed to be the saviors of the world (they really hadn't) they walked around and looked around the secret library, trying to find something to take everything off of their minds.

Naruto had found the scroll that appeared to be written to by his father, and he kept it in his pocket and stored it for later. Other scrolls that seemed to be all for him on one shelf were about different and interesting jutsus. There was one large scroll that was merely titled 'Techniques of the Rinnegan'. When he opened it up, he was surprised to find the contents which listed four techniques:

_-Shinra Tensei_

_-Bansho Tenin_

_-Hiraishin _

_-Shinra Kyuuzou _

Naruto was ecstatic that he would be able to learn his brother's favorite technique, but he was unsure as to what the last jutsu was.

Sasuke found a scroll that was titled 'Secrets of the Sharingan', which he picked up and was sure to read later. Other scrolls included interesting fire techniques as well as an equal amount of lightning techniques for some reason. He also found a number of different genjutsu on the shelf.

Hinata likewise found a scroll labeled 'Shinsei Byakugan', and she picked it off the shelf.

The three then climbed down from the library, and they prepared to share the news with everyone else.

_Day's Later_

It was Gaara's day off from missions, but he still chose to go out to the many convenient training fields of Konoha to work on sand techniques as well as his taijutsu. And of course, Kairi went with him to help him out in the areas that she could.

However, Gaara today was somewhat aggravated that his sand techniques were so limited because of the new terrain around him. He also didn't have his sand gourd which had previously been the main source of his defense and attacks.

"Well, can't you just make yourself another gourd?" Kairi asked him as they were walking back to their home. "There wasn't anything special about your old one; all you did was add your chakra to it."

Gaara nodded as he thought about the idea.

"Yeah, I guess I could. But I want to try to make a better gourd than before. My last one way too big and way too heavy, and it screamed out "this isn't a regular ninja". I want something that can be much better, but I don't know what I could make."

Kairi thought about it for a moment before an idea came to mind.

"What about Naruto's gigantic seal library?! I'm sure that there could be a special seal that he could put on a gourd to make it much better!"

Gaara nodded again and together they headed to their house to meet up with Naruto.

_Naruto's House, Afternoon_

For the past couple of days, Naruto and his two other friends had been spending a large amount of their time, nearly all of their free time, in the libraries of the Namikaze. Naruto had been spending the most time. He had been learning new things every day!

When he had returned to the library for the second time, he had looked for the letter that his father had written to him. When he had found it, he read it and his eyes filled with tears at what his father had wrote.

In summary, his father apologized for having to seal the Kyuubi within him, and he talked about how much he would miss his son. He told Naruto that he believed in him and he thought that Naruto would make a great Hokage one day. It hadn't been a well written letter, and it had been clear that his father had been rushed, but just reading something that his own father had written caused Naruto to overflow with joy.

Not only that, but his father put pictures of their family in their. There were pictures of the Yondaime when he was Naruto's age, pictures of his mother when she was young as well, and pictures of Nagato. Some were single, while others were with them all together. The last picture of the entire family was a picture were Minato was smiling at the camera with his wife, placing a hand on her very pregnant belly, with Nagato smiling nearby. After that, Nagato had added pictures of Naruto growing up, along with Konan and Itachi. The last picture in the album was one where Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke were all huddled together with Nagato, Itachi and Konan.

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted when the door to the library opened and Gaara and Kairi walked in.

"Hey guys," he greeted, turning away from his scroll. "What's up?" he asked, wondering why they both came up to him.

Gaara walked up to him and went straightforward.

"I'm making a new gourd for my sand and I wanted to see if you have any helpful seals that could make using the sand stronger."

Naruto leaned back in his chair and thought about the question.

"Sure, I could look through my memory! I already look through all of the scrolls, and the seals have been burned into the memory of my Rinnegan, so let me look."

Naruto closed his eyes, and he activated his Rinnegan. Eyes still closed, he looked through all of the seals that he memorized, much like credits rolled across the screen after a movie. There were at least a hundred seals that he saw, so it took him about two minutes to find a seal that looked promising.

_Seal of Creation_

The title of the seal sure was interesting when Naruto had first read it, and the seal itself had a long description to it. It had several purposes for it. One useful purpose was that it could be used as a summoning seal. Naruto could summon animals without having to go through any hand-seals, which would be useful. Too bad he didn't have any summons…

But the seal of creation also allowed for the conversion of chakra into an element. For example, this seal could be placed on a sword, and if the user of the sword pushed chakra into the sword, the sword would be covered in flames and double its damage, if the user had _fire _chakra.

Or in Gaara's case, if the seal was placed on his gourd, he could make his own sand if he used his chakra!

Naruto explained this to Gaara, who in turned was fairly surprised that such a seal existed.

"If that's the case," he responded, "then I can create myself a gourd that is not heavy nor big, and still it would hold a nearly infinite amount of sand in it!" Even the stoic Jinchuuriki began to get excited over the idea.

"Yeah, now all you have to do is make a gourd," Kairi put in. "But where would we do that?"

Naruto frowned for a moment as he thought about it.

"There's that weapon shop here in Konoha that I showed you which has a really great owner who knows what he is doing. You could probably go there and see if he could give you what you have in mind!"

Gaara nodded, and after thanking Naruto, he turned to leave.

"Great. I'll come back with the new gourd and you will be able to administer the seal upon it."

_Weapons Shop_

Gaara and Kairi walked into the shop, and went up to the desk, where they saw a girl their age at the front cashier.

"Hello! My name is Tenten; my father is the owner of this shop!" she said. "Is there anything that I can get for you two?"

Gaara nodded and walked up to her.

"Yes. Does this establishment accept personal request for weapons?" he asked.

Tenten gave him a funny look.

"Do you mean does he make weapons on request? Yes! It cost extra, but if the weapon of your choice is not on the shelf, he can make it for you!"

Gaara nodded again.

"Excellent. May we see him now?" he asked.

Tenten nodded and motioned for them to follow her.

"Come on! My dad's in the back working on new weapons!"

She then led them to the back of the shop, behind several doors, where surely enough the blacksmith was working on a sword by the looks of it.

"Dad! This guy here wants you to make a weapon for him!" she said. Afterwards, she went back to the front to wait for other customers. On her days off, she enjoyed working in the shop with her dad after all.

A man in his middle ages turned to them and put his hammer down, which he had been smacking the blade with, and he carefully put the blade in a container of water, which immediately sizzled. He sighed and wiped the sweat off of his forehead before turning toward the two.

"Hey there! What can I do for ya?" he asked in a nice tone.

Gaara spoke up for both of them.

"Hello. Is it possible that you could create a special scabbard?" he asked, hoping that it didn't sound too strange.

The man huffed and puffed out his chest.

"Why of course! All I need to know is the size of the sword and I can make if for you! Did you bring the sword you want the sheath for?" he asked, looking for where Gaara would be holding the sword.

Gaara shook his head.

"I don't need it to actually hold a sword. I want it to be a scabbard with a cap on top that can be removed. The scabbard is not meant to hold a sword…I need it to hold my sand."

The blacksmith nodded in understanding and placed his hand on his chin, thinking about what he could make.

"Well, how big do you want this thing to be? If I make it the regular size of a sheath, it won't hold that much sand in it," he explained.

"It doesn't need to have to hold that much sand," Gaara explained. "I want it to be the size of a regular scabbard."

The blacksmith clapped his hands together with the thought of a new project.

"Alright then! I will make that sheath just for you! Is there anything else that you two might want?" he asked, looking at Kairi now.

Gaara thought for a moment and looked Kairi beside him.

"Well…I think we will be alright."

The blacksmith nodded.

"Great! Let me right up a receipt for how much this is going to cost and when I'll have it ready! I'm actually done with all of my other projects, so if your lucky I'll have it for you tomorrow morning!"

He took a receipt out of his pocket as well as a pen and wrote down some numbers and handed it to Kairi. Kairi's eyes slightly widened at the sight of how much it was going to cost.

"Gaara-kun! This is a lot!" she claimed, showing him.

Gaara merely shrugged when he looked at the price.

"The price means little. When I left Suna, I took a considerable amount of money with me from the bank. I knew that my father had died, and convincing the bank to give me a lot of his money wasn't that hard. Paying for this will mean little to me."

With that, the two left the shop and went back to their house.

_The Next Morning _

Gaara had left alone that morning to return to the blacksmith with some money to see if his scabbard was ready. When he entered, the blacksmith saw him behind the cashier and motioned for him to come over.

"Ah! You've returned! The sheath I made for you turned out rather nicely!" He reached behind the counter and pulled out a metal scabbard that was neatly done.

"You didn't really request what color it should be or any designs on it, so I decided to be creative and do it myself. What do you think?" he asked, handing it to Gaara.

"It's perfect!" the red-haired boy claimed, surprised at how light it felt compared to his gourd. The scabbard was black in color and instead being in an oval shape to fit a sword, it was more in the shape of a small rounded cylinder. It had random designs carved into it which made it look nice. The blacksmith also handed him a strap which he could use which was black as well, and when Gaara fitted it around himself he smiled. He then reached his hand over and reached to take off the top.

"In order to take off the cap," the blacksmith explained, "you have to twist it to the side, and then pull it off. This way it won't just fall off while you're walking or something."

Gaara nodded and twisted the cap to the side. There was a small, nearly inaudible click, and then he was able to pull it off. Afterwards, he put it back on and gave it a twist locking it back in place.

"Thank you. Here is the appropriate amount of money which you asked for," Gaara said, handing him the money.

The blacksmith smiled in return.

"Thank you for your business! Is there anything else that you would be interested in? I have a pair of tonfa that are really nice and I'm selling them for a discount this week. Would you be interested in them?" he asked.

Gaara was about to say no and leave, when he realized that Kairi didn't have a weapon of her own.

"Actually," he said, "I would like to purchase those tonfa."

The blacksmith's eyebrows rose up at him accepting the offer, and he went in back to hand Gaara the black tonfa which had silver lining.

Gaara paid the correct amount, and after thanking him again, he left to return home and experiment with his new weapon.

_Naruto's Sparring Room_

In Naruto's house, Gaara, Naruto, Hinata and Kairi were all sitting together waiting for Naruto to place the seal on Gaara's new gourd. Well, except for Kairi. She was running around the room, playing with her new tonfa.

Naruto held Gaara's scabbard in his hands, and he concentrated his activated Rinnegan on it. Finding the image of the seal in his mind, he projected it forward to the scabbard.

Sure enough, the seal appeared on Gaara's scabbard for a short time before it disappeared from sight.

"Here, try it out," Naruto said handing the sheath back to Gaara.

The red-headed boy used the strap to hold it across his back. He then pushed chakra into the scabbard to see what would happen. Just like Naruto had predicted, sand began filling Gaara's gourd until it was completely filled up.

Gaara reached behind him and twisted the cap before pulling it off. He then allowed the sand to flow out and circle around him, testing out his control.

"This is perfect," he said. Suddenly a question popped into his mind. "You said I can use this seal to create as much sand as my chakra will allow, right?" he asked Naruto.

Naruto nodded.

"Well then how will I return the sand that I created back to my gourd?"

Naruto shrugged now.

"I'm not sure. Try creating more sand and then try fitting it back into your gourd to see what happens."

Gaara pushed more chakra into the scabbard and sure enough sand began to flow out of it, joining with the sand already circling around him. Then, Gaara tried to fit all of the sand back into the gourd, knowing that there was too much sand.

But surprisingly, all of the sand fit it, and he was able to put the cap back on. He looked confusingly at Naruto waiting for an explanation. However, Hinata was the one to speak up.

"Wow! All of the extra sand that you put in there was converted back to chakra and it went back into your chakra system!" she exclaimed.

Gaara's eyes widened.

"Really? All of the extra sand that goes in becomes chakra? That's great!"

Gaara thanked Naruto and then left with Kairi to go out and train with their new weapons.

Now, Hinata was alone with Naruto in the dojo. The shy girl nervously poked her fingers together in bad habit as she waited for Naruto to say or do something.

But before he could, Sasuke entered the room, holding a scroll that was titled 'Sharingan'.

"Guys, look at this!" he said, excitingly. "You won't believe what I learned from this scroll!"

"What is it?" Naruto asked, becoming excited from hearing good news.

Sasuke showed the scroll to Naruto and Hinata. On the page was a picture of a strange Sharingan, where the iris was colored black and the Sharingan design was colored red, in the shape of a star.

"This is the Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan, the one that I have!" he said. "Look at how powerful this thing is!" he exclaimed, reading aloud.

_-The Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan is the most powerful form of the Sharingan. All other Mangekyous are only weaker forms of the Kagai. Only one person in the world can have it at a time. Only Hakoda Uchiha, the founder of genjutsu, has been known to possess this ultimate technique. _

_This Sharingan has nine special techniques to it. A regular Mangekyou has only two special techniques._ _There are 4 ways to achieve the Mangekyou Sharingan, and each result holds a different unique power. There are 2 evil ways to achieve the Mangekyou and 2 pure ways. The quickest way to achieve the ultimate Sharingan is to evil…to kill your best friend._

Sasuke stopped reading at this.

"Itachi wrote to me that he had to kill Shisui, his _best friend_, because Shisui attacked him and he would have ruined their plan! That means this was how Itachi got _his _Mangekyou!"

_The two powers that are achieved from this way are __Amaterasu__, the ability to call forth black flames as hot as the sun with the ability to destroy anything, and __Tsukuyomi__, which upon eye contact, can make the enemy go into a world were the user controls all of reality for three days, while only a second goes by in the real world._

_The second evil way to gain the Mangekyou is to kill your most loved one; like a wife or a husband. This will grant you the technique __Kizu__, which sends out a horizontal chakra slash at high-speeds which would kill the person upon contact and destroy any defenses. The second technique granted is __Kutsuu__, which upon eye contact can make the enemy experience excruciating pain like none before, which is enough to kill depending on the mental capacity of the enemy._

_The first pure way to activate the Mangekyou is to have your Sharingan activated for a complete 72 hours, without sleep. This will grant the user two powers. The first is __Kamui__, which is a space-time technique with ability to send any object into an alternate dimension. The second is __Youkai__, which is the ability turn intangible and have objects faze through you, as well as the ability to faze through objects. This is a much more advanced technique than the Assimilation Technique. _

_The second pure way to activate the Mangekyou is to copy over 2000 ninja techniques with it. This will unlock two powers for the user. The first is __Fuzen Maboroshi_ _which is mind reading abilities and the ability to control another person and give them your thoughts._ _The second technique is __Shourai Genzou, __which is the ability to see into the future of yourself, or those who you make eye contact with._

_The Kagai Mangekyou is the only Sharingan to posses all of these powers, as well as one more. The Kagai has its own unique power, __Kokugen Soujuu__. This power is the ability to slow down time (not including yourself) in a certain area around you for as long as your chakra maintains it. _

_In order to gain the Mangekyou, these four ways must be met. However, there is another way to receive a special Sharingan, known as the Eternal Mangekyou. To have this eye, a brother must take the Mangekyou Sharingan of his other brother, and then implant them in his own body. This will grant the user four special powers; the two powers of each brother combined. Madara Uchiha is the only known person to ever achieve this Mangekyou._

_To activate the Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan, the ultimate Sharingan, a special requirement must be met. This Sharingan can only be activated, like the Eternal Mangekyou, between brothers. One brother must activate his own Mangekyou Sharingan, and it must be the one that unlocks the power of Tsukuyomi. The other brother must not have his Sharingan activated at all. _

_The brother that has the Tsukuyomi only achieved it by going through the immense emotional pain of killing his best friend. And for the other brother to activate the Kagai, he must go through a greater pain. The brother with the Mangekyou must activate the Tsukuyomi on the other brother and make him suffer extreme mental pain. Not only that, but he must kill their entire family and everyone else precious to the brother and then make him relive it with Tsukuyomi. Only then will the Kagai Mangekyou reveal itself._

Sasuke stopped reading for a moment.

"When Itachi used his Mangekyou on me, he made it seem like everyone around me had died; my family, and even you guys. He only did this so that I activated my own Sharingan!"

_The Kagai Mangekyou will activate itself and the Seal of Heaven, the seal in the shape of a Sharingan, will appear on the neck of the brother. That seal will activate itself whenever the user activates it. It will boost the power of the user immensely, making him stronger, faster and give him a stronger chakra._

_The Kagai Mangekyou is an evil eye, and it will attempt to take over the user three times…_

_The Next Week, Hokage's Office, Morning_

Life went on for the three friends and now Team 7 was standing in front of the Hokage's office, waiting for the next D-ranked mission to be assigned to them. Ever since the Hokage placed Hinata on a different team, Naruto hadn't talked to him, and instead he glared at the old man with a fierce a look. Sarutobi was hurt by his actions.

"Team 7," the Hokage said as custom, looking at their previous missions. "It seems that this team has completed the most missions; more than any other team. That's quite impressive! Let me see what I can give you three for today…Ah! It seems that the Fire Lord's wife's cat has escaped again! You three-"

"No!" Sasuke shouted out, surprising everyone in the room. The elders and Chunin sitting with the Hokage all looked in shock at the Uchiha.

"I'm not going to go on another stupid mission that is a waste of time! This team is too good for that anyways! The entire purpose for those pointless missions is to create teamwork between Genin as well as community service. But we already have great teamwork! Even though it's not nearly as good as it would've been if Hinata was on our team, Team 7 is ready for much more!"

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and sighed as all the elders began to yell at Sasuke for interrupting the Hokage. The boy was right for one thing; Team 7 was ready to handle more than D-ranked missions. Even Sakura, who had been dead last in the Academy, was improving at an alarming rate, due to the influence of the two boys. Maybe…

"Enough!" Sarutobi said, silencing the room. Everybody looked at the leader and waited to see what his reaction was. "Kakashi, what do have to say about your student's outburst?" he asked, looking at the lazy ninja.

Kakashi was silent for a moment, but he looked up at the Hokage with a fierce look in his eye.

"I agree with my student. Team 7 is ready for more."

The elders looked on in shock at the Jonin's risky statement. Sarutobi however nodded and trusted the judgment of the ninja.

"Very well. I will assign Team 7 a C-ranked mission."

The elders now turned to look at the Hokage with mixed reactions while Naruto cheered. Sasuke smirked at his accomplishment, and Kakashi allowed himself to eye smile.

"But there is one condition," Sarutobi called out, interrupting the celebration of Naruto. "I was originally going to assign this mission to several Chunin, so your Genin team will not be enough; no matter how prepared you believe you are. I will assign this mission as a 'group' mission, meaning that you will be teaming up with another Genin team. I will assign the next Genin team which has the most amount of missions completed. Kakashi, meet with me in half an hour and I will describe this mission to you. This meeting is over, you may all dismiss yourselves."

_Later_

"What is the meaning of this meeting?" Kurenai asked, standing next to Kakashi in front of the Hokage. The old man sighed, hoping that this would turn out better than he thought. Kurenai was a powerful woman, and this would require her consent…

"The true meaning of this meeting is revolved around both of your student's, particularly Hinata…I am deciding whether or not the girl's true place should be on Team 7 instead of Team 8."

Kurenai was quick to retaliate.

"What?! You can't put her back now! She's my student and she will remain my student unless I say otherwise!"

Sarutobi nodded. The Jonin sensei did have control of her student after Hinata was assigned to her. However, the Hokage had other plans.

"Yes, I know that. That is why I have devised a sort of test," he explained, trying to get at this slowly. "This test will decide whether or not Hinata belongs on your team, Kurenai. Should she pass this 'test', then she would be replaced with Sakura, who-"

"Hold on!" Kurenai interrupted. "Whether or not Hinata belongs on Team 7 isn't the only factor in this at all. Even if she did, by having that Sakura girl on my team would only serve as having a non-functional search team. You would be helping one team, but hurting another!"

The Hokage nodded.

"Yes, that is why I put a lot of thought into this. If any of the teams should ever be changed, then Hinata would have to show skills capable of placing her on the Attack team, which is currently Team 7, and Sakura would have to show skills placing her on a search and retrieve team, which is currently Team 8. Also, you Kurenai, would have to approve of this trade."

Kurenai was about to immediately object when the feeling of guilt crept up in her. What if Hinata did really belong on Team 7? The look of sadness every day that she saw on her was bad enough…Should she really agree to this?

After several moments of silence, she finally spoke up.

"And how would you plan to test these skills?"

_Konoha_

An hour later, Kakashi had told the team to meet together in the front of the village, near the gates. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all waiting patiently for their sensei to explain what the mission was going to be. After all, he had told them to pack everything that they would need as is they were going on a trip to another village. They all had backpacks strapped across their backs, holding all sorts of tools.

"Here's what's going on, guys," Kakashi began. He didn't seem to be carrying any backpack with him. "We have been assigned a C-ranked mission, as you know, with another Genin team. This mission is a search and destroy mission, so the Hokage assigned Team 8 to work with us."

Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes went wide with realization. Hinata was on Team 8!

Just at that moment, Kurenai and her team walked up to the gates of Konoha, all looking ready to travel. Upon seeing her two best friends, Hinata happily ran up to greet them.

"Naruto-kun! Sasuke-kun!" she shouted in excitement, standing in front of them. All three of them were happy that they would finally get to go on a mission together, even if they were going as separate teams. Both Kiba and Shino also greeted their two friends as well, being happy to see them.

Kakashi allowed the three to talk for a few moments, but then he spoke up to gain the attention of everybody.

"Listen up!" he said, causing everyone to look at him. He gave a silent nod to Kurenai and he made sure Kiba and Shino were paying attention.

"The Hokage put us together because your team," he said, motioning to Kiba, Shino and Hinata, "is the search and retrieve team, which will be needed for this mission. This is the mission we were assigned:"

With that, he pulled out something from his back pocket and he showed it to the group. It was a photo of a rather aggressive looking man with dark hair and dark eyes, and the man was labeled as 'Rugetsu Mamori.'

"This man is classified as a low-ranked missing nin who abandoned his village, Kusa, a while ago. There is a fine on him and we are supposed to bring him back dead-or-alive to the Hokage, so that we can collect the money for the village. The man was last seen in the River Country, in a small town, so the Hokage thought that it would be appropriate to send us. He is said to travel in gangs of bandits, so we should all watch out! Alright everybody, we'll head out immediately!"

Everybody nodded and with that, the two teams left Konoha to begin their first C-ranked mission.

_Half and Hour Later_

Kurenai sighed as she watched Hinata smile and laugh with her two best friends who were walking ahead of her. The girl did seem so much happier when she was around those two, especially Naruto, who caused her cheeks to glow with a healthy pink color nearly all the time. She then turned to Kiba and Shino, who were walking slightly behind Naruto. They seemed to enjoy his company as well.

Sakura, however, wasn't talking with the group and she seemed to be walking by herself. Realizing her opportunity, Kurenai sighed again and walked up to the pink-haired girl, initiating the plan.

"So, Sakura," she said, gaining the girl's attention. "Kakashi told me that you were able to form a solid clone in the form of a bird the other day. That's pretty impressive! Usually genjutsu forms tend to not be solid; it takes talent to actually form a solid illusion."

Sakura slightly blushed at the praise as she thanked the woman for praising her.

"Anyways, since we're going to be traveling together for a while now on this mission of ours, and I happen to be one of the most talented ninja regarding genjutsu in the village, would you like to train with me when we have the chance? Who knows; maybe this transformation technique of yours can turn out to be really powerful!"

Sakura stuttered with herself before she was able to respond. One-on-one training time with a genjutsu specialist?! That was amazing!!

"H-Hai, Kurenai-sensei, I would appreciate that!"

Kurenai nodded to herself.

"Good. Then the next stop we make I want to assess your abilities and work with you while Kakashi works with the others."

Back with Naruto, he was just explaining to Shino, Kiba and Hinata how he and Sasuke tricked Kakashi with their 'scarecrow jutsu'. Kakashi had walked up to the two and patted them on the heads, only to find an explosion of hay waiting for him. The group found the story funning and they all laughed at it.

"So how long do you think it will take before we are able to find this guy?" Kiba asked, placing his hands behind his head. Akamaru, who was resting in his jacket, yipped in agreement.

Shino was the one to respond.

"It will take another three days to reach River Country, and then another day to reach the town which Kakashi says the man was last seen in. After that, we will use our abilities to search for this man which might take up another day. It would be safe to say that we have at least week, unless everything goes perfect, which doesn't usually happen."

The group continued walking for a while, until Kakashi appeared in front of them and signaled for a break. They were in the middle of a grassy clearing surrounded with trees.

"We'll rest hear for the day. There's no rush, and I want to get camp set up before the sun begins to go farther down. Also, this spot will be a great place to train. Don't think that this is just going to be a vacation because you're on mission!"

Everybody nodded, and listened to what the Jonin instructed to start up camp.

_Later_

Kurenai had pulled Sakura aside in the woods before dinner so that she could privately train her for an hour. She decided to start with the basics.

"Sakura, have you ever heard of the tree-climbing exercise, where you use chakra to climb up trees?" she asked, wondering how far along the girl was.

Sakura nodded.

"Yeah! That was one of the first things Kakashi-sensei taught me when we first started out. I actually got it really quickly without trying hard!" she said, hoping not to sound too arrogant.

Kurenai nodded, glad that she was that far along.

"Good! How many genjutsu do you know?" she now asked.

Sakura shrugged and thought aloud what she could remember.

"Not much but basic transformations and bunshins. Kakashi hasn't really taught us any genjutsu."

Kurenai nodded. She would start with the basic genjutsu and then work on Sakura's ability to transform into animals. Maybe this girl _could_ be a good addition to Team 8!

_Unknown Location_

Suigetsu and Karin fell over on the ground, panting in exhaustion. Koutetsu stood in between them, heavily breathing but still standing. He glared at the man in front of him, wondering how powerful the man actually was.

"Good, good! You three are really improving, due to my teaching skills! I knew that the Leader would choose to make me your sensei! After all, I was the one to train Pain, Itachi and Konan when they first came to Akatsuki!" he bragged, huffing out his chest.

Tobi walked forward so that he wasn't so far away from the three anymore.

"Alright! Now it's time for the critique. Koutetsu, your lightning techniques as well as your kugutsu (puppet arts) are amazing! You are also quite the strategist; you almost got me when you replaced yourself with your puppet! Your only problem is that you take too much time to form your jutsu. All we have to work on is your hand-seals and such and I really think it will make a difference!"

He then turned to look at Suigetsu, who was now in the sitting position drinking a bottle of water.

"Suigetsu! Your water techniques are _amazing_! Not only that but you were able to form your body and make yourself stronger with the water. I think you just have to work on a bigger variety of jutsu as well as kenjutsu. You also shouldn't underestimate your opponents. I have no doubt that you will eventually become as strong as your brother!"

Suigetsu 'hn'ed and Tobi then turned to Karin, the last student.

"Karin, when you first came here your only ability was your kekke genkai which allows you to have an incredibly perfect chakra control along with chakra sensory abilities. I'm glad you're working on some of your genjutsu as well as taijutsu, you're really improving!

"Now, about your teamwork; Suigetsu, you are _water _natured, and Koutetsu, you are lightning natured! Together, I think you two would make a great attack force while Karin-"

"Enough."

The four of them turned to the entrance of the room where Sasori, in his Hiruko puppet, had just entered.

"Ah! Sasori-senpai! I was just training our students! Actually, I think I should start calling them _my_ students because you never train them besides Koutetsu, who you give private kugutsu lessons. I think when they really get strong I should take all of the credit because-"

"Shut-up!" Sasori fiercely shouted out, causing Tobi to comically flinch back. "I have just come back from speaking with the Leader. He is allowing for my plan to go forth."

Tobi looked at his partner curiously, wondering what he was talking about.

"Ano, what plan are you talking about?" he asked, voicing the opinions of his three students as well. If Sasori's plan didn't involve them, he would have told them to leave immediately to talk with Tobi in private.

Sasori grunted in response.

"This year Konoha is holding the Chunin Exams for all of the villages. I was extremely pleased to hear that we wouldn't have to wait any longer, as I hate waiting. You three will be participating in the exams, which will start in several months."

Koutetsu's eyebrows rose up with mild amusement as he heard this. Clearly the three of them were much stronger than Chunin, and Koutetsu himself was already as strong as a Jonin, so why would they be taking the exams? There must be a deeper reason…

"What the hell?!" Suigetsu screamed out, not being as reserved as Koutetsu. "Why would we need to take the exams? I thought we were supposed to stay hidden and work with Akatsuki?"

Sasori didn't respond and began to walk out of the room. Before he could leave, however, Tobi gasped from behind them and shouted out,

"Awesome! My students get to enter the exams! Does this have anything to do with you killing Kabuto, your old apprentice? I've been wondering..."

He was cut off as a large metallic scorpion tail popped out of the ground underneath him, quickly wrapping around him. Before Tobi could do anything, it lifted him into the air and slammed him into the wall.

"How did you know that I killed Kabuto?!" Sasori screamed out, looking at Tobi with venom in his eyes. The actual poisoned tip of his scorpion tail wasn't touching Tobi, but the bladed edges of it were, cutting into his skin as it held him.

"R-R-Relax!" Tobi stuttered as he struggled under the grasp of the tail. "I just figured out that since he used to be your apprentice, and the way that he was _poisoned_ to death, I thought it would relate to you!"

Sasori frowned from the inside of his puppet as continued to hold Tobi up in the air. He released his hold on him and let him fall to the ground.

"Whatever. I will talk to you about my plan later, Tobi. I believe that you would be an interesting ally in the future…"

Tobi scoffed at the mysterious remark and he brushed his arms that had been cut from the scorpion tail. Sure, he could have easily avoided the attack, but now he had an excuse to go and see Rin, the medic nin of Akatsuki!

"Look at all these cuts! I guess our training session is over, guys, I'm gonna have to go and get these checked out."

Sasori chuckled as he turned around again to leave.

"Another excuse to see that medic nin? Honestly Tobi, I was surprised when I actually grabbed you with my tail. I was told that you were once the second-in-command here. I'm beginning to wonder how powerful you actually are."

Tobi sheepishly smiled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"It can't be helped I guess! I'm always getting beat up by some Akatsuki member, so I _have _to visit Rin all of the time. Just the other day _thief_ almost managed to steal my heart!"

Sasori grunted in response.

"You should learn to be more respectful to other members. One of these days, I'm actually going to use my poison on you if you keep annoying me. Hah! We'll see if that useless medic whore can heal you then!"

He was about to make another comment when Tobi suddenly vanished from sight. The masked Akatsuki suddenly appeared in front of Sasori, with his orange mask raised, revealing the face of a young looking man in his twenties, though it looked like he was still eighteen.

Sasori was surprised to see the face of his partner; after all, Tobi wore his mask more than Sasori stayed in his puppet Hiruko, which was impressive. Sasori had begun to think that Tobi was missing an eye or something, because there was only one eye-hole on the mask.

However, Sasori was also surprised to find that Tobi's right eye, which was the one that usually saw through the mask, was closed, and it was the left eye that he was now looking into. Even though Sasori was only looking through the eyeholes of his puppet, he instantly recognized the shape of the eye he was looking into. His own eyes widened for a moment when he realized that it was too late to look away.

Suddenly, the world around him began to change and the entire room that they were in turned into red. The other students that had been in the room weren't there anymore, and when Sasori looked out the window, he saw that the rest of the world had turned crimson and black as well.

"This is my world, Tsukuyomi," Tobi commented. Sasori was frightened when he realized that it wasn't in his goofy regular voice, but instead it was in much more serious one that didn't sound like it belonged to him. He also realized that he was no longer inside his puppet but he was instead actually standing in front of Tobi.

"In my world, I control reality. Three days can go by here, but in reality only a second will go by."

Sasori looked up at Tobi, with a slightly shaky voice.

"W-Why did you bring me here?!"

Tobi now smiled at him evilly.

"Just to share with you something that I didn't want to show in front of my students. Listen carefully, the next time I remind you this it will be before I kill you."

Suddenly, the room around him burst into black flames, surrounding both him and Tobi. Next, Sasori made the mistake of looking back into Tobi's eyes.

"I won't keep you here for long. If I did, you might end up dying in real life. Please understand that you will _never _again insult Rin in front of me, even if it is some sort of joke.

"_Kutsuu!_"

Sasori fell to his knees and clutched his head in agony as he let out an ear-piercing scream. The most pain that he had ever felt in his life began coursing through his head and his body. He had been punched, stabbed, cut up, and he had also experimented on his own body, but this pain shunned all before it. For fifteen seconds he screamed on the ground, curling his body up. How was this happening? He had replaced all of his non-needed body parts so that he wouldn't feel pain! How could his entire body be hurting?!

Tobi frowned as he released the technique. The last time he had seen the technique in action, it was when _he _used it. Kutsuu made the Hyuuga's activated Bird Cage Seal seem like mild headache. It was not fun having to watch a repeat of his memories, but he would do it to someone mocking Rin.

Suddenly, the black fire faded away and the world returned to its normal color. Sasori, inside his puppet once again, allowed himself along with the puppet to fall over in pain and exhaustion. Before anything else could happen, he shunshined away to recover.

Koutetsu, Suigetsu and Karin looked at Tobi in confusion. One moment, he had reappeared in front of Sasori, and the next moment Sasori fell over!

Tobi, who once again had his mask on his face, shrugged again sheepishly at them.

"I wonder what happened to him. He must have been tired or something! Anyways, you are all dismissed! I have to go to Rin now so she can heal all of my wounds…"

With that, Tobi disappeared from sight, leaving the students to wonder what the hell has just happened and how strong their sensei really was.

_Elsewhere_

"Paper?"

Konan nodded as she held an origami flower toward him, smiling like a little girl.

"Yeah! Origami was always a hobby of mine! I think that I can also make it into some sort of special ninjutsu! How great would that be?!"

Pain nodded as he considered the fact. Paper style ninjutsu, which he had never heard of, did have the potential to be powerful. Still…the idea of turning a childhood hobby like origami into ninjutsu was strange.

"You seem rather childish at times," he said stoically, looking at her with his Rinnegan eyes.

Konan smiled at him as she recognized the compliment. Both Itachi and Nagato had begun to hide their true emotions so that they could deal with the pain that they felt inside. But she refused to do that! She still found time to smile and laugh and be happy around Nagato. If Nagato was just her friend, and nothing more, then she would have probably turned out like everyone else. But her love for him and his love for her allowed her to stay positive and maintain a happy relationship with him. By calling her childish, he meant that she acted like she did in their childhood, which was certainly something that Nagato had liked.

"Nagato-kun! You can be mean sometimes when you try!" she scolded him, giving him a hug. "My paper jutsu is going to be really powerful! But what about your newer technique? How is it coming along?"

Pain's Rinnegan eyes shot forward toward a wall as he had just sensed a sudden flash of powerful chakra. He was one of the few Akatsuki members still staying at the main base, as most others were out with various missions. _Metal Earth _and his partner were actually assigned to choose the locations of several other bases, and then he would actually build the base. Tobi and Sasori were probably the only other members here in the hideout, and he wondered what was going on…

"What is it?" Konan asked to him, curious as to why he had suddenly looked away.

Pain shook his head and went back to his demonstration. He held up one seal and closed his Rinnegan eyes in concentration. He located the correct seal in his mind, and he projected it to the ground…

Suddenly, clouds of smoke appeared around him, blocking Konan's view for a moment. When the smoke cleared, five clones appeared next to him. Konan's eyes widened for a moment when she realized that each of the clones…had a different colored hair.

Blue, brown, red, white, yellow…each clone had a specific hair color which matched its Rinnegan.

"W-Why do these clones look different than you?" she asked, looking back and forth between the clones and the real orange haired Nagato. Everything about the clones were identical, except the hair color.

Nagato nodded at the question.

"I have succeeded in mastering this technique. It allows me to make _real _shadow clones, which bleed and die just like I would. Because of our Rinnegans, I can see through each of their eyes, as well as connect my thoughts to them. I have divided my chakra into six separate parts, _water, earth, fire, wind,_ and _lightning_, keeping _force _and all of my favorite techniques to myself. Each of these clones of mine can be summoned, and each of them all contain enough jutsu and abilities to make them S-ranked ninja. I am now not just one S-ranked ninja, but six. I have become a Sage of Six Paths, just like Gyatso and Rinku were before me. With this technique I have proven my mastery of my Rinnegan."

Konan didn't know what to say as she finally figured out how powerful her love had become._ Six_ S-ranked ninja? There was no way that anyone could possibly beat him now!! He could have his own organization by himself! He could destroy armies and villages…

She stopped for a moment as she noticed another difference of the clones.

One of them, the one with white hair, had a large grin on his face, looking like he was about to laugh. Standing next to him, the red haired Pain looked like the exact opposite. He was deeply frowning with a scowl on his face, almost as if he was somewhat angry.

Turning to look at the other clones, Konan noticed other differences. The one with yellow hair seemed to be smirking coolly, and the one with blue hair seemed to almost look as if he was worried about something. The last clone with brown hair didn't seem to be showing any emotion, and he seemed to resemble Nagato the most.

Konan couldn't help but smile at the different looking Nagato clones.

"Wow! Konan-chan, you look really beautiful!" the white haired one said in a cheery voice that certainly didn't belong to Nagato, throwing his hands up with exaggeration. Konan blushed at the comment while the real Nagato looked at his clone with slight annoyance. But before he could say anything, the Pain with yellow hair, which resembled Naruto to a certain extent, due to the fact that the two were brothers, stepped up and smiled coolly at Konan.

"Don't pay attention to that loser," he smoothly said, messing up his hair to try and give himself a better look. "But he is right about one thing…you certainly are a babe! How about you and me get some alone time and-"

"Um, guys, I'm not sure we should really be talking to Konan-chan like that," the blue haired clone interrupted in a somewhat nervous voice. "After all, she is going out with the original."

The red headed one spoke up next with a fierce voice laced in power.

"You should just all shut up and stop being so damn annoying. If we weren't all on the same team, I'd obliterate all of you!"

The yellowed haired one seemed to be annoyed with this statement.

"Ya right! I'd like to see you try, hot head! My lightning would beat out your fire any time, any day!"

The argument continued on, with all of the clones putting in their opinions here and there, except for the brown-haired clone, who closed his Rinnegan eyes and shook his head in boredom, amusement, or indifference.

"Enough."

Despite their differences, all of the clones stopped talking immediately as they obeyed their creator.

Konan couldn't hold back her giggles as she found the situation terribly funny.

"It seems each of my clones has taken on a different personality of mine. _Wind_ is free going with a happy spirit, _water _is indecisive and adaptive like his element, _fire_ contains some of my less happy attitudes, _lightning_ seems to be cool but dangerous, and_ earth_ seems to be calm and collected. But they all seem to harbor an affection for you," he said in a monotone voice, showing neither happiness nor anger.

Konan was now laughing and it took her a while to calm down. Pain, all the while, kept a serious look on his face, even though he enjoyed seeing his girlfriend this happy.

The five other Nagato clones disappeared and the real orange-haired one walked up to Konan.

"Only when Naruto reaches this state which I have obtained will he be able to face the Dark Lord," he said, causing Konan to look serious again. "But there is no possible way that he will be able to achieve it in a short amount of time. Rinku, the past hero, had disappeared from the world to train in the 'sprit world'. He disappeared for seven years to master all of the elements as well as his Rinnegan. Naruto does not have that amount of time; the Dark Lord will have recovered by then, and he will be at full strength."

Konan looked worriedly at Nagato.

"But then how will he have enough time?! What can we do?!"

Nagato sighed as he told Konan of his plan. She wouldn't like it, and she wouldn't agree with it, but he would have to make a sacrifice for the sake of the world, just like his father had done before him.

_Trail_

The large group came to a stop as their destination came into view. They were currently in the River Country, and they had traveled to the middle of it to find the town where Rugetsu Mamori had been last seen. The town seemed rather full of activity, and they could hear the chatter of people from the trail far away.

"Alright everybody, let's head into town," Kakashi instructed, moving forward. "From now on, everybody be on your guard. This guy might know we're coming for him, so be prepared for any sort of attack."

Everybody nodded and they continued to walk forward on the trail to the town.

In the town, they asked around to see if anyone recognized the picture of Rugetsu. Little information actually came from the townspeople. Eventually though, at a bar, Kakashi had discovered that there was a bandit camp nearby the village that Rugetsu was apparently the leader of.

They regrouped with this information and Hinata used her Byakugan to try and locate the camp.

"Ano…I think I see some sort of large camp east of the village, nearby a river and some large hills," she said.

Kakashi nodded and began moving forward.

"Alright then. Everybody, we're heading toward the camp!"

_Outside the Fortress_

Naruto hid behind a tree as he used his Rinnegan eyes to look into the camp, trying to see all that he could. He was currently alone, as Kakashi had told them all to surround the camp to find the best way to infiltrate. Naruto had used the opportunity to create about ten powerful shadow clones which had the Rinnegan, so he could communicate with them mentally as well as see through there eyes if the time called for it. He could also replace himself with one of his clones if needed be. The possibility of shadow clones went on and on, and he promised that he would look into it later when he had the time.

"_Number 7, what do you_ _see?_"Naruto mentally asked one of his clones, trying to get a better look at the situation.

"_Nothing special,_" came a response, "_actually, I think I-_"

"_Chief!!"_ one of the clones shouted out loudly in his mind. He instantly recognized it as a clone that he had sent to guard Hinata while she was taking surveillance.

"_What is it?_" Naruto asked back, wondering what was going on.

He gasped suddenly as the memories of the clone were sent flooding into his mind.

Hinata had been captured!

He immediately ordered all of his clones to tell the others of the situation as he rushed to meet up with the teams himself.

"What do you mean?!" Sasuke asked him rather loudly, even though they were trying to still hide behind coverage.

"My clone was watching Hinata while she looked for Rugetsu with her Byakugan, and suddenly someone grabbed her out of nowhere, and then she disspeared with the person. I think they dashed back into the camp, but I wasn't able to see much," Naruto reported to everyone that was present.

Sasuke cursed as he thought of what he could do. Suddenly, Shino, who was kneeling beside them, spoke up.

"It seems that both of our sensei have disappeared," he said with somewhat of a confused and worried voice. "I tagged both of them with one of my special bugs that allowed me to keep track of them, and now I can't sense any of them."

Naruto frowned as he wondered what this meant.

"We'll worry about that later. Right now, we need to focus on retrieving Hinata and Rugetsu…Shino, did you happen to tag Hinata with that type of bug you were talking about before?" he asked, hoping that he had.

Shino nodded.

"Yes, I have. And if I am not mistaken, whoever took Hinata seems to be traveling away from here at a quick pace. If we don't make a move soon, I don't think that I will be able to track her, and Kiba's sense of smell doesn't last that long, even with Akamaru."

Kiba nodded and Akamaru barked from beside him.

Naruto nodded as he closed his eyes and tried to develop some sort of plan. After several moments, he had an idea.

"Our mission was to capture Rugetsu, but things changed once Hinata was captured. Shino, you, Kiba and Sakura will follow after wherever Hinata is going and retrieve her. Sasuke and I will infiltrate the camp and cause hell and try and capture Rugetsu. Sakura…what do you want to do?" he asked her, leaving the choice up to her. She could either back him and Sasuke up, or go help Shino and Kiba find Hinata.

The pink-haired kunoichi seemed to be thinking deeply for a moment before she looked up with confidence at Naruto.

"I'm going to turn into a hawk and fly from above, keeping sight of the kidnapper and attack when the opportunity presents itself, just like what I did with Kakashi. Once we get Hinata, we'll head back to you two and back you up!" she said, surprising everyone with how sure she sounded.

Naruto nodded before swinging his arm to the side.

"Alright! Move out!"

The group didn't hesitate for a moment and Shino and Kiba dashed out of the trees headed toward where Shino had directed, and Sakura quickly transformed into a hawk which quickly flew high into the air above Shino.

Naruto then nodded at Sasuke and together they charged to the fortress.

Both jumped over the large wooden doors of the bandit fortress, and they were surprised to find at least fifty bandits seemingly waiting for the two to appear.

Without warning, they charged and ran forward at the two, forcing them to engage in combat.

Naruto took the initiative ninjutsu and clapped his palms together, shouting out,

"_Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm!_"

A large gust of wind erupted from in front of Naruto, blasting away the first few bandits that had come to attack them.

Sasuke, from behind Naruto jumped up into the air, releasing several fireballs down toward all of the enemies. When he landed, he tried to release a new fire jutsu which he had learned from a scroll in the library of the Namikaze. He flew threw several hand-seals before he landed on the tiger seal, his Sharingan now spinning rapidly.

"_Fire Element Art: Racing Flames!_"

A ring of fire quickly surrounded him, coming up from the ground, before it dashed forward in two lines, quickly obliterating the bandits that had been targeted.

Not finished with the technique, Sasuke made the lines of fire circle around the thirty or so bandits, until there was one large ring of fire around them. The bandits looked at the fire around them warily as it rose higher, effectively blocking their view and esacape.

Suddenly, Naruto appeared in the middle of all of the bandits, with his hands in a palm seal, and his Rinnegan eyes glowing.

"_Wind Release: Heavenly Air Vortex!_"

Naruto spun in a complete circle with his palms outward as he converted his chakra into wind, causing a circle of wind to appear around him. This attack threw all of the bandits around him into the wall of fire, but that was not the intention of the technique.

Naruto pushed the wind outwards so that it was caught by the fire, instantly creating a large tornado of fire. This move had been an organized repeat of what Naruto had used against Sasuke when they sparred in the beginning of the academy. The remaining bandits were picked up by the large currents of wind and fire and they were thrown into the inferno.

When the technique was finished and the tornado died out, Naruto was found panting around a large pile of unconscious and badly burned bandits. Nodding at Sasuke, they moved further into the fortress trying to find Rugetsu.

_Elsewhere_

Whoever had kidnapped Hinata threw the now tied up body of her to the ground as masked person stopped to momentarily rest. She didn't have much time though as she sensed two people coming toward her. She was told that she was supposed to kidnap Hinata, and that there would most likely be a retrieval team sent out find her.

But how had they gotten to her so quickly?!

Sure enough, Shino and Kiba jumped out into the clearing and landed next to a stream that was nearby, facing their opponent.

The kidnapper prepared for a battle of the two, though she failed to ignore the hawk flying down above her.

Forcing chakra into her momentary talons, Sakura easily cut through the bindings that were holding Hinata. The moment the Hyuuga was released, she hopped up and formed her own fighting stance, while Sakura returned to her normal state.

The kidnapper looked around at the four ninja surrounding her, before she smiled and accepted defeat. She took off the mask that was hiding her face, causing everyone around her to gasp.

Sasuke and Naruto had just walked behind the fortress on a hill, where they saw two ninja standing, waiting for them. One of the attackers was masked, while the other was smirking down at them, showing them his face. This was Rugetsu! All they had to do was knock this guy out and then the mission was over with!

"Ha! Do you think you two puny wimps will be able to beat me, Rugetsu Mamori?!" he said rather loudly, revealing his name to the two. "I've seen stronger looking whelps in a nursery!"

Naruto and Sasuke ignored the remarks as they prepared for battle. This person wasn't supposed to be any higher than a Chunin rank, so they should have an easy time working together to get both of them.

But before either of them could make a move, the masked ninja on the side of Rugetsu flew through some hand-seals, landing on the snake seal.

"_Earth Release: Earth Flow River!_"

The two enemies happened to be on a hill, so it was an inconvenience to Naruto and Sasuke as a large earth river flowed down rapidly to them, threatening to engulf them.

Both however will able to jump aside to avoid the attack, and they ran upside the river to engage the two in taijutsu.

The masked ninja's eye's seemed to widen for a moment before he jumped back, trying to avoid Sasuke who was running toward him. This caused the Uchiha to smirk.

"_This guy is clearly a long-ranged fighter! All I have to do is get close to him and I got him!_"

As Sasuke pursued the masked ninja, Naruto pulled out both of his katana from his back and dashed forward with a burst of chakra, trying to catch Rugetsu off guard.

The enemy ninja seemed to have seen it coming, as he was able to block the swords with a kunai of his own, before he jumped back a bit. Before Naruto could attack again, Rugetsu held up a hand-seal and looked deep into Naruto's eyes.

Naruto was surprised as he found himself unable to move.

"Temporary Paralysis Technique," he said with a large smirk, "Isn't it great! You can't even move!"

Rugetsu then pulled out a kunai, and tossed it forward lazily at Naruto, so that it would hit him in the chest. However, when it hit him, he was surprised to find that Naruto had exploded into a cloud of smoke.

"Shadow clone, huh?" Rugetsu said, scanning around him for where Naruto could be.

Sasuke continued to evade the numerous earth jutsus that the masked ninja continued to throw out at him. Sure, this guy is supposed to be Chunin, but he apparently had a hell of a lot of chakra!

"_Earth Flow Divide!!_"

The enemy then slammed his palm into the ground, surprising Sasuke. The ground between him and the enemy immediately began to rip apart, as if there was an earthquake beneath them. Large chasms appeared, and it was about to reach Sasuke, but the Uchiha was once again able to avoid the attack by jumping in the air.

Next, Sasuke surprised the ninja by performing a difficult in-air shunshin, appearing right in front of the enemy. Sasuke reached back and pushed chakra into his fist, preparing to punch the surprised ninja in the face.

However, right as his fist was about to collide with the ninja, Sasuke's hand was stopped short by…sand?

Sure enough, a shield of sand had intercepted Sasuke's fist, to the Uchiha's great surprised.

Before Sasuke could pull his arm back, the sand gripped him hard and threw him back, causing him to roll all over the ground.

When he finally stopped, Sasuke looked up at the enemy with confusion. Since when did anyone besides Gaara control sand? His thoughts were cut short however when sand quickly enwrapped his feet, quickly encasing his body in a large prison of sand, much like the technique Gaara usually used.

Sasuke began to fear for his safety. If this technique was anything like Gaara's, then he knew what was coming next.

However, the enemy ninja was unable to complete the technique as Naruto appeared next to him, releasing another wind palm technique at the enemy.

The masked ninja was unable to avoid the attack and maintain Sasuke's prison at the same time, and Sasuke fell to the ground unharmed. Naruto was just as confused as Sasuke as to how the ninja was using sand techniques. They didn't have much time to think though as the sand ninja disappeared in a swirl of sand, and Rugetsu appeared in front of them, preparing to battle again.

But this time, Naruto and Sasuke were ready for whatever this guy was going to dish out.

"Hm! You two kids don't seem half bad!" Rugetsu complimented. "It's a shame that I have to kill you! Maybe you two could've-"

Whatever he had planned to say next was cut short as he was blasted forward toward Naruto and Sasuke, falling on his face in front of them.

Behind where he was just standing, Hinata was still holding her palm which was glowing blue with her chakra.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto happily called out to her, glad to see that she was alright. She waved at him as well, smiling at her two friends.

Rugetsu, who was lying on the ground, moaned as he held his back in pain.

"Ah…damn it! That actually hurt, Hinata!" he called out, surprising everybody that he knew her name.

Suddenly, Kakashi and Kurenai appeared next to them, with the silver-haired Jonin eye-smiling at his students.

"Hey guys! Congratulations, you all passed!" he said, confusing them even more. However, they weren't _really _confused until 'Rugetsu' dispersed in a cloud of smoke, to reveal an unhappy looking Anko.

_Later, Late Evening_

"What?!" Sasuke, Naruto and Kiba shouted out, causing Kakashi to flinch back a little. They were currently in the woods, deciding to camp out for the rest of the day, seeing as how everyone was exhausted. Anko, Gaara, Kairi, and Sai were all sitting with them around the campfire.

"Yep! This was all just a test planned out by the Hokage! He wanted to test out each team, and specifically, Sakura and Hinata," he explained as he held everyone's attention.

"The Hokage was debating whether or not Hinata should actually be placed a search team or not, and so he devised a plan. 'Rugetsu', or actually Anko, would hide out at a bandit camp and wait for us to arrive. Kairi would quickly kidnap Hinata, so that she would be taking her out of Team 8. Then, we would test to see how good Sakura's skills are, and to see whether or not she could possibly belong on a retrieval team. Sure enough, Sakura was able to replace Hinata's Byakugan by her new special animal transformations, and she basically led Shino and Kiba to Kairi.

"Then, Anko herself tested out the skills of Hinata by seeing if she could belong on a special attack team. She didn't really have much of a chance to fight, but she was able to get in close to the enemy while Naruto and Sasuke fought from afar, which is basically what she is supposed to do when fighting a real enemy.

"This was a test for not only you guys, but for Anko's Team as well. Gaara was able to practice his earth jutsu, and Kairi was able to practice her stealth. Sai didn't really need to be tested because Anko already knew him well enough."

Still, after the explanation, Naruto was confused.

"Um, what why were we being tested? What was the point of all this?" Naruto asked, not connected the dots yet.

Kakashi eye-smiled again as he responded.

"When we go and report this to Sarutobi, he is going to change the teams up a little bit. When we return to Konoha, Hinata will officially be apart of Team 7 and Sakura will have replaced her on Team 8."

At this, Naruto's, Sasuke's, and Hinata's eyes all widened in surprise.

"Yatta!" Naruto shouted in excitement, jumping up, grabbing Hinata and spinning her around, to her delight. "Hinata-chan, can you believe it!? You're gonna be on a team with me and Sasuke!!"

Hinata blushed with happiness as her dreams came true. All she had ever really wanted for the past few weeks was to be on a team with Sasuke and Naruto, and now she finally would! She would be spending so much more time with her two best friends and Kakashi-sensei! So much more time with Naruto…

Sasuke wasn't jumping around with Naruto, but he was just as happy in his own way. Sakura wasn't at all sad for moving on to a different team. She realized that she didn't really fit well with Naruto and Sasuke anyways; with her low levels of chakra she was more useful for genjutsu, and she was more appropriate for a search team anyways. Also, she would be able to learn genjutsu from Kurenai herself, who was probably the best in Konoha since Itachi wasn't there any longer!

Kiba and Shino also accepted the fact that Hinata would be better off on Team 7, and after what Sakura had showed them today, the pink-haired girl wouldn't be that bad to have on their time. Actually, Kiba thought that she could look kind of cute…

The group happily talked amongst themselves for the remainder of the day, planning to head back to Konoha in the morning. Kakashi smiled in satisfaction as he realized that he would finally be able to be the sensei of his desired team. Team 7…it was destiny that allowed a second set of Genin teams to consist of the Rinnegan, Sharingan, and the Byakugan. Not only that, but Kakashi had a feeling that this legendary team was going to become even stronger than the last.

_Unknown Location_

"A-A-A-O-Ow-Ow-Ow!" Obito complained as Rin continued to heal his wounds using her medical green concentrated chakra. "Rin-chan, you're being to rough with me!"

"Come on, Obito!" she sighed in exasperation, tired yet still amused at hearing his yelps of pain. "Stop being a baby! The other members don't complain at all when I heal them, and I'm trying to do my best with you!" she said, continuing to travel up and down his body. He wasn't wearing a shirt so that she could see all of the cut wounds that Sasori had inflicted upon him. They were currently on a roof of the hideout in the mountains so that they could have some privacy to themselves. The view was rather stunning, as they had the mountains before them and the valleys below.

Obito shook his head at her request.

"All the other Akatsuki members are freaks! They actually like the pain!" he said, his eyebrows rising up. She couldn't help but agree with that statement and giggle a little at it.

Obito wasn't wearing his orange mask; there was no need to wear it around Rin. After all, the two were best friends, and she had grown up seeing his face, so there was no need for him to mask it.

After several moments of him yelping in pain, and her healing him, she sighed and wiped a little sweat off of her forehead.

"There! All done! Usually I would tell you to stay out of trouble so that you wouldn't keep getting injured in the first place, but I guess that's impossible for an idiot like you," she said, sighing at him and crossing her arms in a sitting position.

Obito gave her a foxy smile in response.

"Ya, but I'm the _idiot_ that you really like!" he said, knowing that it couldn't be a bad thing.

Rin could only smile in agreement. While she did like Tobi a lot, she knew that he actually loved her. She knew that all this time, ever since his first accident from which he lost his eye. He had told her that he loved her, and since then she had followed him away from Konoha.

Why?

She didn't really know. She didn't want to think that she could possibly love an idiot like Obito, put she couldn't help it! His always friendly attitude and his goofy smile that he always wore…It didn't help that she had spent so much time with him.

But, she still didn't confess any feelings of him…yet. She would always tell him that he had to wait for her to confess her feelings, which he patently did. But that didn't stop him from always trying to make advances on her which she found harder to resist every time.

"Whatever Obito! You're still an idiot!" she said, scolding him while still smiling.

He frowned in mock hurtfulness, and after he put his shirt back on he scooted next to her so that they could look out at the scenery together.

"I had to use _his _eye today," he eventually said after about a minute of silence. Rin looked up at Obito in concern, wondering why he had to.

"Why?" she asked. "What happened?"

Obito looked back into his memories as he appeared to be thinking thoughtfully.

"Hm…Now that you brought it up, I can't really remember!" he said, always making up ridiculous and unbelievable excuses.

Rin sighed again.

"But I didn't bring it up!" she complained, "You were the one to just say it!"

Obito frowned again as he thought about what she said.

"Good point…what were we talking about just now?" he asked, scratching his head.

Rin sighed and turned away from him. Obito was just so irritating sometimes! He got her worried by saying something like that, but then he said he couldn't remember why!!

"Oh! There are two really important things that I wanted to tell you!" he said, after he had an epiphany. Rin sighed again (she sighs a lot around him) and looked up at him, not even expecting him to 'remember' it.

He surprised her when he slung his arm around her should, pressing her against him.

"First of all, I wanted to tell you that you're the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, and that I love you, and that I want you to be with me forever!" he said, not embarrassed in the least.

Despite him telling her that nearly everyday, her cheeks still heated up a little bit at how open he was with her.

"B-Baka!" she stuttered out, though she still let him keep his arm around her.

"And the second thing I wanted to tell you is that I'm going to go to Konoha soon, and I'm going to meet up with everyone." He said this sentence as if it wasn't really important, and as if it wasn't as nearly as important as he first statement.

Rin, however, looked up at him in surprise.

"Really?! Why?!" she asked, shocked as to why he would go back there.

"Well, Sasori-senpai has this evil plan where he wants to send my three students to the Chunin Exams, which is being hosted in Konoha. I'm going with him, and I'm going to pretend to be their Jonin sensei! How cool is that?! I'm taking my team to the Chunin Exams!!"

She looked at him with disbelief and shock at what he had just said.

"Not only that, but I researched a little, and I found out that Kakashi has three students who have recently turned Genin, and if they were good enough to past his bell test, then he'll probably put them in the exams! I'm going to go up against Kakashi's team!"

Rin now looked at him in even more disbelief. Tobi would be going to meet with Kakashi…there other best friend and old teammate…

"Now, I have some good news and some bad news," he said. "Which one do you want to hear first?"

Rin shrugged, noticing that his arm was still slung around her.

"How about…good news?" she asked, wondering what he was going to say.

"Alright! The good news is that I'm going to try and convince Sasori to allow you to come along with me. The bad news is that you're so beautiful, that I'm afraid everyone is going to try and hit on you."

Rin ignored his last comment as she squealed in delight and hugged him tightly. She would have a chance to finally return to her home village! That would be amazing!! When she calmed down, she blushed a little after realizing that she was hugging Obito so tightly, and she asked him a question.

"H-How are you going to convince Sasori to allow me to come?" she asked, knowing Sasori to be a dark figure.

Obito smiled at her.

"The answer to your first question: I'm really good at convincing people and I won't give up! The answer to your second question: Obviously, you didn't."

She frowned in confusion.

"Um, I didn't have a second question?" she said, wondering why he said that.

"Obviously, you didn't."

"…Obito, you're such an idiot!"

He laughed as she punched his side, which still wasn't enough to get him to take his arm off of her. The two sat together for a while on the roof as they just enjoyed their time together.

"You know…I have a feeling that this upcoming Chunin exam is going to be the most dramatic one in all of history!" he said.

"Why do you think that?" she asked back, wondering where he was going.

"First of all, if Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata enter the exams, they will be the second team ever to have the Rinnegan, the Sharingan, and the Byakugan on the same team. Not only that, but I hear that Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata are all very strong. Next, my three students will be entering the exams, and they are all already above Chunin level. After that, Orochimaru is going to be going there as the impersonated Kazekage, and he will start a war with Konoha using Suna, as well as his own Sound. So yeah, it looks like things will turn out to be pretty interesting."

She nodded her head as she agreed with what he was saying.

"O-Obito, how do you feel that the Leader is allowing Orochimaru to attack Konoha? Don't you want to save your old village? I know that I do!"

Obito nodded.

"Don't worry! I talked with Nagato about this, and he said that he would be attending the exams as well to make sure that nothing too bad happens. I think he will also be taking Konan and Itachi with him. I guess that's another reason why these exams will be so interesting!"

Rin was rather surprised to hear this.

"P-Pain is going to go to the exams!? But what will he do when Orochimaru starts the invasion?"

Obito shrugged.

"I have no idea. But I know I sure as hell won't want to miss it!"

_Elsewhere_

Itachi and Sub-Zero returned to main Akatsuki hideout, ready to report to the Leader. Sub-Zero had succeeded in taking the legendary blade from the Lin Kuei, and now they needed to report to the Leader to see what he wanted them to do next.

Together, after going through series of large rooms and hallways, they walked down the hallway of the medieval castle until they reached the large doors of the throne room. When they entered, they were surprised to see two other Akatsuki members kneeling before the Dark Lord.

Itachi and his partner walked up to the throne where the Evil King was sitting, and they kneeled before him as custom.

"You may rise," he said in a commanding voice.

Itachi looked over to see the two other members. It seemed to be Rain, and his partner Hanzo.

"Leader," Hanzo spoke up in a gravely voice, "We have successfully located the Three-Tails. It seems that the beast has been separated from its host, and it now resides in a large lake."

The Dark Lord smiled and nodded his head.

"Very good. I do not want the beast to be captured just yet, as my plans are not ready to use the beasts. Your team will remain on hold until I give you any other missions."

He then turned to Itachi and Sub-Zero. The ice-nin immediately spoke up for the two of them.

"We have retrieved my weapon as desired. We are ready for our next assignment."

The Dark Lord nodded his head again.

"Very well. There is a man whose powers interest me. He had originally declined my offer to join this organization. The penalty for his decision is death. His name is Zabuza Momochi, and he was currently last seen in the Mist Village."

Rain's head shot up at the mention of Zabuza.

"Ah! Zabuza Momochi! He is powerful indeed! He used to be the leader of my previous organization, the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He had assigned for us to kill Madara, the Uchiha who somehow became our Mizukage. Zabuza had something against the Kage, and since we all hated the new Kage anyway, we planned to attack him. In the end, we failed, and the organization disbanded as a few members were killed. Zabuza, Kisame, and I were the only survivors, due to the fact that we are all S-ranked."

Itachi was curious as to how Madara Uchiha had been the Mizukage and whether or not he was still living.

"Seven A-ranked and S-ranked ninja went up against Madara, and you still lost?!" he asked, wondering how powerful Madara was.

Rain was about to respond, when the Leader began laughing evilly but lightly.

"Ha! It doesn't surprise me that all seven of you were still unable to kill him! Madara was extremely powerful, enough so that he was able to challenge me in a battle. Around a hundred years ago, during the Second Great Shinobi War, Madara had infiltrated my castle and challenged me to combat with his Eternal Mangekyou. Even though the Eternal Mangekyou isn't nearly as powerful as the Kagai had been, Madara had been extremely powerful and he actually challenged me in battle! Near the end, when we were both tired from fighting, he managed to escape with his life."

Itachi's eyes widened. Madara had been strong enough to fight the Leader and live?!

"Is he still alive now?" Itachi asked the Leader, who was giving away more information than he ever had before.

The Leader shook his head.

"No. He was killed, ironically, by an Uchiha. There is a phrase that 'only an Uchiha can kill an Uchiha', and in this case, it was proven to be true. Obito Uchiha, who is now in our organization, was the one who finally killed Madara."

Now, all of the four members before him gasped in shock. Madara had been strong enough to fight almost equally with the Dark Lord, and Tobi had beaten Madara?! How strong was he?!?!

"Enough. Too much has been said already. Zabuza Momochi has rejected my invitation, and therefore he must die. Itachi, you and Sub-Zero will go out and kill this man. Be warned, he is S-ranked and quite strong. Locate him, and end him. Dismissed."

The four figures vanished before the throne, leaving the Evil King to go back to his memories.

_End_

Not much happened in this chapter, besides formally revealing what Naruto would have to do later on in life, and setting up the real Team 7 for the Wave Arc that's coming up. The next chapter will cover the start of the Wave Arc as well as other things, so hopefully it will start to become more interesting.

Thank you for reading this chapter! Please review about what you think of the story so far! Stay tuned for the Omake that is below the review responses.

Notice: I am currently a starting linebacker of my football team, and I get home from practice everyday at around 6:45 at night. Shower and dinner then leaves me at 8. All of my honors and AP classes consume the rest of my day. I'm really booked right now with time, and if I supposed to have any sort of social life, I have even less time for writing. It's hard to get updates out when I can, and I'm sorry for the wait in between. Hopefully you all can deal with this. Thanks!

Power Levels:

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500+**

Characters:

Hinata: **165**

Sasuke: **170 **

Naruto: **180**

Sai: **150**

Gaara: **200**

Kairi: **130**

Aki6: Exactly. Sakura would normally be a useless and pathetic excuse of a ninja right now in the canon, but Naruto and Sasuke both have a different influence on her, which causes her to _want _to become stronger. And she just might become a useful asset in the future.

Godschildtweety: Thanks!

Anotamous: Thanks for reviewing every chapter. If you're having problems finding my story on fanfiction, an easier solution would be to search 'williams5505' on google, or you can search 'Second Born Naruto' on google, which should work. But to answer your question, Chapter Ten was updated on 9-15-09, and the story itself was published on 3-15-09. If I didn't address the problem, I'm sorry.

Rose Tiger: Thanks!

Wolvenstrom: Thank you for reviewing. I really can't stand Sakura either, so I know where you are coming from. In every story that I read, I'm always wishing that Naruto would just beat the crap out of her so badly that she would be hospitalized for weeks, but I (almost regretfully) won't do that to her, since I'm changing her attitude. Who knows, maybe I'll make a one-shot where Naruto just flips and beats the crap out of her after a snappy comment from her. Haha that would be pretty funny. Anyway, hopefully this chapter satisfied you, because the teams were changed.

Kingswriter: Thanks for the review. Kurenai was indeed a bitch for placing Hinata on her team. But I had this planned all along, so it was only for a chapter.

Dbtiger63: Thanks for the thoughtful review! I'm glad that you like the story so far! Most people want action immediately, put I'm trying to set that up for later. There is indeed a lot of growing left for them to do, and I'm going to write about it all the way. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Rena: Thanks for another great review! I hope you'll stick with this story until the end!

OverLordRaven: Thanks!

Mackjav: Thank you. Hopefully you are happier now that Hinata will be on Team 7. I had it planned out that Sarutobi would finally give them a 'real' test, so that Hinata would be where she belongs. I sure as hell won't just drop Hinata out of the story for a while because she's on a different team.

Dalaion: Thank you!

Biggstone78: Thanks! I hope you enjoy the rest!

Thank you all once again for reading! Enjoy the Omake, and see you next chapter!

-williams5505

Omake: The Road of Life

_Naruto's House_

"Come on Naruto, let's leave now," Sasuke said as he stood by the door, motioning for Naruto to come with him.

Naruto pouted and crossed his arms, shaking his head.

"No way. You and I both know that Kakashi won't show up to the meeting place for up to three hours!"

Sasuke managed to smile at the comment, as it was completely true.

"That doesn't matter! This is gonna be our first mission with Hinata! Don't you want to come early? Besides, it's a good time to train while we wait for sensei."

Naruto still wasn't convinced. He was about to try and come up with another argument, when an idea came to his head.

"Go on without me. I'll catch up with you when I get ready; I have something that I want to try out!" he said enthusiastically.

Sasuke sighed at the blonde's antics but left anyway, heading toward the training grounds.

Naruto smiled when Sasuke left and he left shortly after, however, he was headed toward a different location than his friend.

_Kakashi's Apartment_

Naruto giggled with excitement as he prepared to ambush his sensei. He had several low powered _water _jutsu that he had in mind that would wake his sensei up real well. It serves Kakashi right! He shouldn't always sleep in while his students are waiting for him!

Naruto took a deep breath to calm down, and he went to reach for the door, only to find that the door opened itself up before he could touch it.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said in shock, thinking that Kakashi had caught on to his plans.

The silver-haired Jonin smiled at Naruto as he eye-smiled.

"Yo, Naruto. What's up?" he asked, wondering why his student was standing outside his door.

Naruto improvised on the spot.

"Well, I was going to knock on the door to try and wake you up, so that you would show up to practice on time. After all, it is our first day with Hinata on Team 7!" he said, hoping that it sounded realistic.

The masked Jonin laughed at the masked Genin.

"I always wake up on time! Not once have I ever slept in!" he said, surprising Naruto.

"What? Really?! Then why are you always hours late?" Naruto asked, wondering what else his sensei could be doing. Surely all of those pathetic excuses Kakashi had made up were fake!

Kakashi only eye smiled at Naruto and closed the door behind him.

"Come with me Naruto, and I will show you the Road of Life!"

Naruto looked at his sensei with a confused expression, but her shrugged and followed him none-the-less.

_Streets of Konoha_

"You see Naruto," Kakashi explained as they walked toward the training grounds together, "I always head straight toward the training grounds! But, being as important as I am, important things happen all around me! Because of this, I have learned to walk the Road of Life."

Naruto nodded as he tried to absorb all of what his sensei was saying. At the pace they were walking, they would actually make it to practice in time!

Not a second later after he thought that, a young and rather beautiful looking woman in the streets a couple of feet away from them shouted out,

"Thief! That man stole my purse!"

Sure enough, a mysterious and guilty looking man ran directly by Kakashi with the stolen purse in his arms. But before Naruto could even blink, the Jonin stuck his arm out and clothslined the robber, causing him to flip over on the ground in pain.

Kakashi swept up the purse with practiced ease and he returned it to the woman.

"I believe this belongs to you," he said coolly, handing it back to her. The woman, who Naruto would refer to as woman #1, blushed and hugged Kakashi back in thanks.

"Thank you, oh thank you! What could I ever do to repay you?!" she asked, clutching him tightly.

With his mask, Kakashi might as well have been a super hero to her.

"Nothing, ma'am. It's my duty."

Naruto's eyebrows rose up as he was impressed, and he shortly after walked toward the training grounds with Kakashi once more.

However, it didn't take Kakashi three steps before another random accident occurred.

A potted plant, which was on a three story apartment building, fell off it's window sill, with a distressed young woman shouting: "Oh no!" as it fell to the ground.

Kakashi disappeared from the spot, and right before the pot hit the ground, he appeared next to it and grabbed it out of the air.

Shortly after, he walked it up the side of the building and returned it to misfortunate woman #2.

Naruto's eyebrows with up again as Kakashi repeated his phrase to this woman. When Kakashi walked down, the Jonin shrugged his shoulders and once again and walked forward toward the training grounds.

_Two Hours Later_

Naruto sighed as they walked out of the house of random attractive woman #57 and headed back to the streets of Konoha. They hadn't even gotten out of the main town yet!!

"Ah! Kakashi, you're just the man I was looking for!" Asuma said as he walked up to his fellow Jonin. "You see, I'm in a little predicament here, and I need your sagely wisdom regarding women…"

Naruto now smacked his head as he followed the two Jonin to God knows where.

_Hour Later_

When they finally arrived at training grounds, Sasuke immediately pointed at both Naruto and Kakashi in anger.

"Damn you two! Why are you so late?!"

Before Naruto could respond, he fell face first into the dirt due to exhaustion, leaving Sasuke and Hinata wondering what happened to him.

Kakashi merely laughed at the sight of his student and he reassured them that everything was alright.

"Don't worry! On the way here, we both go lost on the Road of Life!"

Sasuke fumed at this answer while Hinata kneeled next to Naruto, trying to see if he was alright.

"That's bull! What does the Road of Life even mean?!"

"One day, Sasuke, when you are old enough, I will reveal it to you. For now, you are far too young, and you might just end up like Naruto right here."

Naruto flopped around on the ground and twitched at the mention of his name, though he appeared to still be unconscious.

Sasuke shook his head in annoyance.

"Whatever. Let's just get on with this mission already."

_End_


	12. Heavenly

I decided to use this chapter as a character building chapter, which means instead of zooming along with the plot I'm taking chapter to go in depth on a character. Filler? No, not when that person is going to be important later on in the story.

Let's Begin!

The Second Born

Chapter 12: Heavenly

_Kumo, Early Morning_

High in the northeastern mountains of the continent lied Kumo, the great village that resided on the very sides of the giant rocks, as well as inside of them. However, above the majority of the village lied a large clan compound, well known by the entire population to be the rich and famous Korochi Clan. But even higher than that was a specific mountain-top training area, where the top of the mountain was actually flat and filled with lush looking and green grass, as well as trees. There was also a large lake in the middle of it. Few people knew of this beautiful existence, but one young ninja traveled up here every morning to train to become strong.

Roku, wearing a black shirt with loose white pants, continued to work on his _earth_ centered taijutsu. Elemental taijutsu was only meant for those who specialized in a specific element. The taijutsu would revolve around the nature of that specific element. In his case, his taijutsu was powerful, balanced and sturdy like the earth beneath him. He continued to punch directly into the unfortunate log with reckless enthusiasm until he heard an alarm ring behind him.

Cursing in annoyance, he realized that he hadn't been able to punch the log 200 times in the allotted time. It was close; he had actually hit it 193 times, but it was still not enough.

Sighing with not being able to complete his unrealistic goal, he dropped to the ground to face his penalty.

_50 push-ups…_

These went by fast. After all, being _earth _styled, he had a rather strong upper body.

_50 vertical push-ups…_

After his last normal push-up, he kicked his feet off of the ground so that he was standing on his hands with perfect balance and his feet lining straight vertical with his body. He then began to do another fifty of these much harder vertical push-ups.

_50 weighted squats…_

He kicked the ground and a large boulder blew out from in front of him, and he caught it. A normal ninja his age would have had to use chakra to avoid being squished by the large rock, but Roku held it high above his head with pure muscle, and then he began to start his squats.

These strenuous activities went on until the alarm rang for the second time, signaling for him to stop. He panted in exhaustion, though he still stood tall, knowing that there was more to come.

When the alarm ended his five-minute break, he turned to the boulder behind him which he had previously used to do squats. He then forced it back into the ground, and when it emerged, a boulder twice its previous size emerged. He held out his hands to it, and pushed chakra into his hands…

The results were immediate. The boulder was lifted high above Roku's head as he held it in the air using his nature manipulation. He was gifted enough now to actually be able to control earth in its purest form. But now, he was working on endurance. He just had to keep it in the air for thirty minutes…

When Roku finally finished his morning training, he hiked down the mountain with hunger being his new motivation. With the grace in which he walked, one wouldn't notice the fact that he was actually blind.

Roku was still going on in his tradition where he would blindfold himself for a year. He had gone for many months now, and soon, and entire year would have come to pass. He would be turning thirteen in a month and a half, and when that day came, the seal on his forehead would finally deactivate and vision would return to him once more, as well as his bloodline limit, the Kurokugan.

But since he started, he had become much stronger than he was before, despite that fact that he couldn't see. His hearing was astounding, as well as his chakra sensory skills and his natural ability to read vibrations in the earth. It wouldn't be long until he would be considered a 'warrior' in his clan. His clan had its own system of power, where 'novice' was the lowest level, and 'master' was the highest. Master Kurokugan users were extremely deadly, and there were only four in the entire clan, his father being one of them.

It is virtually impossible to sneak up or surprise attack a master Kurokugan user. Genjutsu was also useless on them. Taijutsu was pretty foolish itself, as a master user would have perfected the elemental taijutsu of _earth_, and only a master of another taijutsu form would be able to stand a chance against them. Ninjutsu was the only fair game there was to facing a Korochi.

And soon, he would obtain those powers! When he activated his Kurokugan, he-

_GRRRRRRRRR!_

Roku's thoughts were interrupted as his own stomach emitted a rather large growl. He moaned as he realized how hungry he was and how much of his energy he had used during his training.

'_Formal Korochi breakfast doesn't begin for another hour,_' he thought to himself. '_I can't wait that long! I'll have to go out to eat! But where could I go…_'

He honestly had no idea where he could go to eat for breakfast. He didn't really have a particular taste…

He stopped as a flashback entered his mind.

_Flashback_

_In the front of the Korochi Clan, Kakashi and his team prepared to leave Kumo. Roku was there was well, to see them off._

"_Roku, you should have eaten ramen with us!" Naruto told him as they were walking out of the Clan gates._

_Roku frowned thoughtfully as he nodded his head._

"_What's ramen?" he asked Naruto, never before having eaten the dish._

_It took several moments for it to sink in that Roku was serious._

"_What? You've never had ramen before?" Naruto asked, amazed._

_Roku nodded his head._

_Naruto's eyes widened as if Roku was critically injured._

"_This is serious! You need to go and eat a bowl of it today before you die of 'lack of ramen'!" he told him, completely serious._

_Roku nodded again. He would try it; there was no reason why not to._

_Soon later, the group left Kumo leaving Roku alone to his thoughts._

_Ramen…I wonder how it will taste?_

_End of Flashback_

Despite his desire to try 'ramen', Roku had never actually gone out to eat it. He either had to eat with his family, or he just forgot about it.

He shrugged to himself as he headed down to the main part of Kumo. He would try to eat it for breakfast today and finally see what it tasted like.

_Kumo_

Roku walked through the main part of Kumo, wondering where he would possibly find a ramen bar. People around town knew him fairly well, and many people waved at him, even though they knew he technically couldn't see it.

After about fifteen minutes of searching (it's hard to search when your blind, and he was too stubborn to actually ask somebody), he was about to give up and head home when he heard a loud voice boom from near him.

"Daaamn!" a fairly non-Japanese sounding voice came from his right. "What do you call this stuff again?" the loud voice sounded out again.

Roku turned to investigate, as he heard the word 'ramen' and the voice sounded very familiar. He actually was certain he knew who it was…

As he was walking to the source, he heard a much softer voice respond.

"R-Ramen, c-customer-sama!" the female voice said.

"Hah! 'Customer-sama!' I certainly have never been called _that _before…but I think I like it! It has a nice ring to it, you dig?" the loud voice sounded again.

Roku walked up to the ramen bar and sat on the stool next to the large dark-skinned man who was talking so loudly. The man was actually covered in swords, having seven of them strapped to his body, and he had white hair pulled back on his head, as well as a stylish 'full-circle' beard.

"What's up, Killer Bee?" Roku said as he started the conversation with his friend. Kumo was a special village where Jinchuuriki were actually appreciated, and there were three Jinchuuriki in total in the village. Killer Bee was actually really friendly, and the large and obnoxious man had befriended him a while ago.

"Hey! What's up Nanabi? (Seven-Tails)" Killer Bee said through a lot of noodles in his mouth.

Roku sighed at the nick-name but ignored it, as he was used to it by now.

"Nothing much, _Hachibi_. I just finished training, and I decided that I wanted to try out some ramen, because it was recommended to me by a friend."

Killer Bee swallowed all of the noodles in a large bite and nodded his head enthusiastically.

"This stuff is great! You gotta try it out!"

Roku nodded and turned to the waitress, who was still standing nervously in front of them. Had he been able to see, he would have noticed that she had straight blonde hair as well as sparkling blue eyes.

The waitress suddenly gasped in embarrassment as she realized that it was her time to join the conversation.

"W-Welcome to the Heavenly Angel Ramen Bar!" she said in the same soft voice that he had heard before. He could tell that she was probably his age due to her voice and how tall she was (he could tell this from where the sound was coming from her mouth). He was getting pretty good at this…

"Would you like to try our special, the Heavenly Angel Ramen?" she politely asked, pulling out a piece of notepaper to right it down on.

"Hell ya, he would!" Killer Bee answered for him, after shoving down the last of his own bowl. "And while you're at it, get me another two bowls! I can't get over how great this stuff is! Even Hachibi loves this stuff!"

Roku's eyes widened at the mention of the demon inside of Killer Bee. The dark-skinned guardian of Kumo was known to be in complete control with his Bijuu, even to the point where he said that they talked with each other all the time. Roku had never even heard a whisper of the demon inside of him; if it wasn't for his massive amounts of chakra as well as his dual _earth _and _fire _chakras, he wouldn't believe that he even had a demon inside of him.

The young waitress didn't seem to know if she should write down what Killer Bee had just said. She looked nervously back and forth between Roku and Kirabi, wondering what she should do.

Roku finally shrugged.

"Whatever, get me what this buffoon ordered," he said, leaning forward on the bar counter, tired and too hungry to argue with Kirabi.

The waitress nodded and wrote that down quickly.

"H-Hai! Your order will be out as soon as possible…Nanabi-sama," she nervously said, wondering whether or not she should say the name which Killer Bee had called him.

Kirabi sat still for a moment before he burst out in loud laughter, causing Roku to sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose while other people throughout the village looked at the _very _loud scene with worry or amusement.

The waitress now deeply blushed with embarrassment when she realized that she had made such a big mistake.

"G-Gomen, c-customer-sama!" she tried to say over Kirabi's laughs.

Roku looked up to her with some amusement in his pale eyes.

"Don't worry, you didn't really offend me. It's just that this guy is the only person who ever calls me 'Nanabi'. He made it his own nickname for me, and I think it's kind of annoying. So he's just laughing because you used his nickname on me, that's all," he explained. Who was this girl anyways? Everyone knew that he had the Seven-Tailed Phoenix inside of him, and that his name was Roku. Why would she not know…?

The young waitress merely bowed and dashed back to give the chef their orders.

Roku, in the mean time, knocked Kirabi upside his head so that he would stop laughing, which he finally did.

"It's good to know that there is someone else out there with enough guts to call you Nanabi!" he happily said with a large grin.

Roku sighed and waited in silence for the remainder of the time until their food came.

The young waitress came back, and quickly placed their bowls in front of them, before she bowed politely and backed away behind the curtains.

"Itadakimasu!" Roku and Kirabi both said, clapping their hands together before they began to eat.

By the time Roku had picked up his chopsticks, Kirabi had gotten two mouthfuls of ramen already. He sighed at his friend's antics but he picked up his chopsticks and used it to grab some noodles, bringing it to his mouth.

When he took his first bite, he froze as his eyes widened.

This stuff was amazing!

He carefully enjoyed the wonderful flavor of the ramen in his mouth before he chewed it all up and swallowed it. He then carefully took another small bite of it, trying to enjoy the amazing taste of it.

But, his hunger had started to get the best of him, and before he knew it, he was wolfing down the ramen at a pace almost worth of Kirabi.

He was too busy enjoying the food to notice the smug look Kirabi was giving him.

It wasn't until four bowls later that he left the bar, after paying the right amount.

_The Next Afternoon_

After his daily morning training, Roku had to return to his compound to have a formal breakfast with his family and a few other higher-ups of the Korochi Clan. The breakfast meal was cooked to perfection, and it was impossible to critique, but still, Roku had only one food on his mind.

Ramen.

How could that stuff be so good? And how did he not know about it before hand? The place should be the most popular eating establishment in all of Kumo!

It was now after his afternoon training that he decided to head to the ramen bar once more to indulge himself with the flavor-filled noodles. He had been looking forward for this moment ever since yesterday and it was what helped him get through training really quickly.

He had little trouble finding the restaurant again, and he nearly jogged up to the bar in an uncharacteristically hyper manner.

He was slightly surprised when he sensed the girl from before sitting on one of the stools, enjoying a bowl of ramen herself. When he sat down in the seat next to her, she turned toward him in surprise.

"U-Um, welcome back, customer-sama!" she said, standing up out of her seat. She was about to walk around to the front of the counter when a voice sounded from back in the bar.

"Oh no you don't, Naminé!" the male and somewhat fatherly sounding voice said.

From the back, a middle-aged man wearing a chef hat walked to the counter, and firmly looked at the girl while he scolded her.

"This is your lunch break and you should enjoy it!" he said, ignoring the fact that Roku was there. "I told you that you don't have to serve anyone during your breaks, okay?" he said, talking firmly though Roku could hear a large amount of caring in his voice.

Naminé nodded and sat back down with a small blush of embarrassment on her face. It was only then that the man seemed to notice Roku was there.

"Ah! Roku-sama!" he said, surprised that someone from the prestigious Korochi clan would possibly be sitting at his humble abode. "Why are you eating here?" he asked, somehow not sounding rude.

Now it was Roku's turn to be somewhat embarrassed.

"Well, I came here yesterday to try out some ramen, because I've never eaten it before, and it turned out that I really liked it! So, I came back here today to have some more," he said, trying his hardest to sound somewhat cool if possible.

The owner of the restaurant let out a hearty laugh in response.

"Ha! I never imagined that someone from the Korochi would enjoy my ramen so much, especially you! Sorry for asking such a question from ya, the name's Kigurou, how can I serve you today?" he asked, smiling down at the boy.

Roku nodded back at him and gave his own small smile. Something about the man seemed really nice and caring…

"I'd like to have another bowl of your specialty ramen, and if it helps, I'm going to eat a lot, so make more than usual!"

Kigurou clapped his hands together and smiled.

"Great! I'll get right to it!" he said, walking back to where he cooked the meals.

Roku sighed anxiously as he prepared to eat his meal. Who would have thought that Naruto was right, and that ramen _was _actually amazing?

After several moments he remembered the girl who was sitting next to him, eating her ramen.

"Hey, my name's Roku. I believe I first met you yesterday," he greeted, trying to start a conversation out of boredom.

The girl's eyes widened at his words and she turned hesitantly to look at him.

"H-Hai!" was all she said. Truth be told, she actually didn't know what else to say.

Roku's eyebrow rose up at how awkward this girl was. Usually, when one person says there name, the other says theirs…

"So what's your name?" he asked, still bored with nothing to do while he waited for his ramen.

The girl's eyes widened up in shock as she realized that she had forgotten the common curtsey.

"G-Gomen! My name is Naminé."

Roku sighed once more at the silence that followed after her statement. This girl sure wasn't a social one. Why was he talking to her anyways…? Oh yeah, he was bored.

"So how old are you?"

"12."

"How long have you been in Kumo?"

"N-Not long."

"What's your favorite hobby?

"Cooking."

"Is Kigurou your father?"

"No."

"Where do you live?"

"With Kigurou."

"What's your hair color?"

"…Blonde? Can't you see-"

"Eye color?"

"…Blue."

"Um…what are your dreams for the future?"

"…I don't really know."

"Do you know who I am?"

"…Roku."

"Yes, but do you know what family I am from?"

"…No, gomen."

"So then you're not from around here."

"…I came from far away, a while ago."

"Where'd you come from?"

"…Far away."

"Okay…what's the place called?"

"…I don't really want to tell you."

"Are you a ninja?"

"You're certainly asking a lot of questions!"

Roku looked forward to Kigurou who was holding a bowl of ramen in front of him, frowning down at Roku.

Roku frowned himself as he realized that he _was _asking a lot of questions. But it wasn't his fault! He was just trying to start a conversation and all she would do was answer with one sentence!

"I'm sorry, Kigurou-san, I just tend to ask a lot of questions so that I can…visualize the person who I am speaking to better," he said, that being partially true. At least he knew that she was his age, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

The ramen chef nodded in understanding as it came to him.

"Ah! I see now! You must be going through that ritual of yours! That doesn't mean…you can see, can't you?" he asked, still holding the ramen in his hands.

Roku shook his head.

"Nope. I haven't been able to see for almost a year now. I'm technically blind until my next birthday."

Even though what he said was true, he could 'see', or sense in a way, that Naminé turned to look at him with a look of shock.

"Well I'll be damned!" Kigurou said, smiling. "How do you walk around so easily if you're blind?" he asked, setting the bowl down in front of Roku.

"It just came to me," Roku said in response. "I was clumsy at first, but I've gotten much smoother."

"Well that sure is interesting. Well, I'll leave you two kids to your meals now."

With that, the man went back into the cooking area, leaving Roku and Naminé alone, eating. Roku said 'Itadakimasu' to himself before he dove in. He realized that the girl still wasn't talking, but he was too hungry to care.

_Two Weeks Later__, Roku's Training Ground_

Roku had been visiting his new favorite restaurant once every day now for lunch. He had become quite well known at the establishment. He knew however that ramen wasn't the healthiest of all meals, and he wouldn't be quite energized for training afterwards, so he made sure to eat a variety of vegetables and or fruit alongside his ramen.

Ramen was so good!

It hadn't gotten old in the least, like he thought it would have. Instead, he felt like he liked it even more!

He doubled the speed that he was doing his push-ups so that he could finish faster, and go to his lunch break. He would often come back to the ramen bar for a light snack or a cup of tea after his evening training sessions, but not so much that he would be full already before his family's dinner.

When he finished his push-ups, he fell on his back and began doing sit-ups, hoping do get them done as soon as possible.

_Heavenly Angels Ramen Bar_

Naminé sighed happily as she finished cleaning the dishes for Kigurou-san. She was so grateful that he allowed her to work for him and stay at his house, which was the restaurant. She had no idea what she would do if he didn't…

Over the months he had really become a fatherly figure to her. Actually, since she never really knew her real father, he was more to her like one than she had ever had.

"I'm done, Kigurou-san!" she called out to the chef, who was currently in the kitchen, preparing more meals. Lunch rush was coming soon, and he had to make sure that he was prepared for the crowd.

"Good job! You can go on your break now, Naminé!"

The blonde girl smiled and walked out to the front of the restaurant, so that she could enjoy her break outside. Actually…she would probably wait for Roku to come, so that she could eat lunch with him. It wasn't like he had a scheduled appointment, but for the past two weeks he had been arriving for lunch at the exact same time, every day! She was still nervous to talk with anyone other than Kigurou, but she tried her best to be friendly.

"What'cha thinking about?" Kigurou said from behind her, somewhat surprising her.

She blushed in slight embarrassment and looked away from him, shaking her head.

"N-Nothing! I was just wondering…when the lunch crowd would be coming," she said, hoping that it would sound realistic.

Kigurou laughed at the innocence of the girl. He hasn't known her very long, but he could read her like a book!

"More like you're waiting for Roku!" he said, jabbing her in the side.

She blushed again and tried to avoid making eye contact with anything besides the floor.

"H-How did you know?" she quietly asked.

He laughed at her and patted her back lightly.

"Because I know you! You probably haven't said anything to anyone in the entire village other than Roku yet! He's probably the only other person besides me that you've _really _talked to since you came here! It's not surprising; and, you eat lunch with him everyday! I'm not saying you _like_ him or anything; I actually enjoy his company too!"

She sighed as she nodded in embarrassment. She walked around the counter and sat down, wondering when Roku would come to have lunch…

Not a moment later, their favorite customer emerged from the ground behind her, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Hey Naminé!" he greeted, shocking her badly.

She was so surprised and embarrassed that she fell off of the stool, landing on the ground next to him.

He shook his head and smiled coolly at her as he helped her up to the stool again.

"Clumsy much," was all he said, sitting down next to her.

Kigurou, who was already standing in front of them, smiled and asked for his order.

"So what do you two want today?" he asked, always being friendly.

Roku didn't need to think for a moment as he had thought about his response all throughout his training.

"A bowl of pork ramen, with a side of green tea and some fruit please."

Kigurou nodded as he but it in his memory.

"Alright! What about you, Naminé?" he asked, looking at his daughter figure.

She appeared to be thinking for a moment, but she ended up ordering the same as Roku.

"I'll have the same as Roku," she said, looking somewhat shyly at the boy.

The chef nodded and walked to the back, preparing to make their orders.

Meanwhile, Roku sighed as he leaned forward on the table, smiling at his new friend.

"So how's your day been?" he asked Naminé, curious as to if she had done something out of the ordinary.

She shrugged as she struggled to keep eye contact with him.

"Good! I stayed in the kitchen and helped Kigurou…" she responded. She still was pretty bad at talking with other people, but she was opening up more to Roku, well enough that she was able to continue the conversation.

"What about you? How has your say been?" she asked, causing him to smile even wider from his resting position.

"It's been okay. I have some sort of informal dinner at my house tonight with a lot of guests, so I have to leave training earlier today," he truthfully said. He was not looking forward to it. Dinners, formal or informal, were always dreadfully boring. He wished there was a way that he could just avoid them, or make them more interesting…

He quickly sat up as an idea came to mind. He turned to Naminé and quickly scanned her up and down. She was wearing a one-piece pure white and somewhat tight dress that came to a stop above her knees, though it wasn't that fancy. It seemed like it could be used in both everyday occasions as well as fancier things…He wondered for a moment how many pairs of that type of dress did she have; he always saw her wearing it…

Naminé slightly blushed as Roku looked up and down her body with a critical eye.

"W-What is it?" she asked nervously, wondering if something is wrong.

"Oh, nothing," Roku responded with a smile, storing the idea for later. The conversation went on, and the two enjoyed lunch together before Roku left for training once more.

_Hours Later_

Roku packed up from his evening practice early, and as usual, he headed toward the ramen bar to have a quick snack before he went to his compound. Today his family had planned a dinner with some sort of guest (Roku didn't really care who they were) and he knew that he was going to have to be as bored as hell.

Unless, something out of the ordinary happened. This is what he had planned.

He walked up to the stand and this time Naminé was behind the counter, dealing with several other customers who were there. When he sat down, she walked in front of him and smiled.

"Hi, Roku-san!" she happily greeted.

Roku smiled back and asked for his order.

"Hey Naminé. Can I have a cup of jasmine tea please?" he asked, not wanting to eat anything before the large dinner.

She nodded and quickly ran to the back to pour her customer what he ordered.

Meanwhile, while Roku waited, others murmured and pointed at him when they thought that he couldn't here him.

"Hey isn't that guy the heir of the Korochi?" he heard one person whisper.

"Yeah, your right! He must be the richest kid in the whole world!"

Ah, the benefits of having enhanced hearing. Roku sighed and tuned out to whatever other things the people were whispering about him. He was sure that he heard 'Jinchuuriki' and 'Lava Style' in some sentences, but he didn't really care.

Soon after, Naminé returned to the front counter carefully holding a cup of hot and fresh tea in her hands. She set it down in front of Roku and gave him a polite bow afterwards. She was about to turn around and return to the kitchen when Roku picked up the cup and downed it all in one go.

It took her a moment to absorb what had just happen.

Had she not made the tea hot enough? It was supposed to be _very_hot! Before she could apologize or ask how he did that, Roku interrupted her by sighing loudly.

"Well, that was good! Let me get out my money to pay you!"

Roku then made a rather big scene of shoving his hands into his pockets, digging for his wallet.

Just then, Kigurou conveniently came out from the kitchen to observe what was going on.

"Hey, Roku! Is there something wrong here?" he asked, curious as to why the silver-haired boy was rigorously shoving his hands into his pockets.

After a moment, Roku frowned and looked up at the two, embarrassed.

"I-I can't find my wallet," he lied, knowing that he had it in his ninja pouch. "How am I going to pay for this? Here, let me go back home and try and get some money-"

He was then cut off, as planned, by the ramen chef.

"Ha! Don't worry about it! It's just one cup of tea, and you paid here more than any other customer recently anyways. Forget about it!" he kindly said, as Roku had already stood up.

Roku looked at the kind gesture in small shock.

"Um, I'm not sure my parents would allow me to just take a free lunch from somebody…I should probably go back and get some money…"

Kigurou actually took a stern look on his face as he scolded Roku.

"I will have none of that! It's my choice to want to treat you to a little cup of tea, and I won't accept any money now!" he said, almost stubbornly.

Perfect.

"Well, there has to be some way I can make it up to you guys…" Roku said, trailing off into thought. Suddenly, an epiphany came to him.

"I have an idea! My family is having an informal dinner tonight, and I'm allowed to bring guests. Do you think that you would allow Naminé to accompany me?" he asked, looking deep into the man's eyes.

Kigurou was about to reject, thinking that that was way too much, but he noticed the extreme amount of pleading that he saw in the boys eyes. He thought about it for a moment, and then he smiled.

"Sure, that wouldn't be a problem! That is…Naminé, do you _want _to go to this dinner with Roku?" he asked, turning to the girl beside him.

Naminé seemed shocked at first, and her first thought was to say no. That's why she was completely shocked when she heard herself say:

"H-Hai, that would be nice."

Roku smiled at her and resisted the urge to cheer.

"Great! Let's go now then; we don't want to be late!"

She nodded nervously and looked up at Kigurou, wondering if she should really go out or not. The middle-aged man smiled down kindly at her and motioned for her to go. She then walked around the counter, next to Roku, wondering where his place was located.

He surprised her again by grabbing her hand and jogging down the street, pulling her along with him. Kigurou merely smiled knowingly from back at the ramen bar, understanding that it is a good thing that the girl would finally get to go around the village more.

_That girl needs to get out and explore more. This should be a good experience for her…I hope!_

_Outside the Korochi Clan_

Naminé was surprised with how big the compound actually was. It was gigantic! And it was so rich looking. When they stood in front of the entrance, Naminé stopped walking and looked down nervously, which in turn caused Roku to look at her curiously.

"Are you okay, Naminé?" he asked, wondering why she had stopped walking.

She frowned and avoided eye contact with him, still looking at the ground.

"Well…um…I don't really know how to have a dinner…at someone else's house. I've never done it before. I…don't know what I'm supposed to do."

Roku's eyebrows slightly rose at the statement but he kept a firm smile on his face.

"Don't worry! This isn't really formal or anything and you can just follow my lead if you need any help. Really, you'll be fine!"

Naminé nodded and finally looked back up at him and returned his smile, even though he couldn't see it. Together they then walked through the entrance to the private dining hall of Roku's family.

_Dining Room_

Roku's father had been unsure at first as to whether or not he should allow this…guest to eat with him at his house. While there were a lot of other guests attending, this girl had no special status, and he didn't even know her…But, his wife had allowed her to stay, and he knew better than to argue with his wife. He guessed it would be alright, as long as she didn't do anything radical.

After politely greeting his parents, Naminé had sat down in the seat next to Roku on the massive table that was meant for about thirty people. So far, she had only gotten a few funny looks, but she had otherwise been ignored.

"Wh-Why did you invite me to this?" she whispered to him, starting to wonder if she was really supposed to be there. Even though Roku had said that it wasn't formal, everyone she saw was wearing fancy clothing!

Roku smiled sheepishly at the question.

"Honestly, because these dinners are so boring and I thought inviting you would make it more enjoyable," he responded, causing some color to flush into her cheeks in surprise. "I mean, at least I'll have someone to talk to!"

After all of the other guest had arrived, Roku's father stood up at the front of the table and clapped for attention. Immediately, all of the side conversations stopped and everyone looked at him. He said a greeting speech and he thanked all for coming, and then he called for the food to be brought forth so that they could begin eating.

Tray after tray of delicious looking and fancy food was placed all over the table by servants, and people began to eat. Naminé was really surprised at how fancy and expensive each dish looked! Drinks were placed in front of every person as well.

The side chattering continued, and Roku and Naminé ate there meal in silence for the most part. When they had finished eating, Roku looked around and most other people seemed to be coming to an end as well.

"This is usually when the boring debates begin," he said, beginning to feel somewhat guilty. He didn't want for Naminé to have to sit and listen to all the boring talks about politics and such. Suddenly, he came up with another plan.

"Father, Naminé needs to use the restroom. I'm going to go and show her were it is," he said, speaking to his dad who was next to him as well. The Clan Head nodded and Roku smiled, grabbing a confused Naminé and heading her toward an empty hallway.

"I-I don't have to use the bathroom!" she whispered to him as they were quickly getting out of sight from everyone.

"I know," he said, walking a little further so that no one would see them.

When they were well out of sight, he turned around to look at her. He was still holding her hand, which was causing her face to heat up again.

"Hold on," was all he said, with a sort of mischievous look on his face.

All of a sudden, she felt chakra flow into her body, and she suddenly began to sink into the floor with Roku. She resisted the urge to scream out, and soon her head was about to pass under the ground, so she took a deep breath…

The next thing she new, it seemed like she was flying through the ground. Or more likely, Roku was flying, and she was holding on to his hand. She found out that she could actually breathe, which was surprising.

It didn't take but thirty seconds before Roku resurfaced again, still with a grin on his face. She was about to comment when she looked around her and noticed that they were outside the compound on some grass. It was late evening, and the sun was just beginning to set.

"I had to find someway to escape the boredom," he said, being one to hate boredom. She still wasn't convinced.

"Is that okay, though?" she asked, worried. "Will your parents be mad at me for leaving?"

Roku shrugged in response.

"Probably not. My mom is too nice and my dad has a sense of humor, so I think you'll be okay."

He then seemingly looked down at her arm, which made her wonder what he was doing. She suddenly realized that she was still tightly holding on to his hand, like there were still going through the earth. She quickly let it go in embarrassment and turned around so that he wouldn't see her blushing face.

"Come on," Roku said, motioning her to follow him. "I brought you out here to show you something. Just follow me."

With that, he began walking behind the compound, giving her no choice but to follow him.

_Later_

As the sky turned into a dark orange color, Roku and Naminé were hiking up the mountain. Roku stopped as a thought suddenly entered his mind.

"You never answered my question earlier today, at the ramen bar," he stated, which caused her to worry about what question he was talking about.

"Are you a ninja?" he asked her for the second time that day.

Naminé looked away from him as she remained silent, unsure of how she should answer the question. If she did…would he like her anymore? No one has ever been nice to her before, aside from Kigurou and…her mother. She had never told anyone here her secret before, and she had no idea how anyone would to react to it.

"…Fine, I'll just assume that this topic is personal to you," he said. Though he could not see, he could sense the obvious discomfort she had been in, and how she had relaxed a little at his statement.

"But I'll assume for now that your not, so hold on to me. I want to get there before sunset, and we're moving too slow right now."

He turned around so that his back was facing her, and he bent his knees a little bit so that she could easily climb on his back. It took her a moment to recognize what his position meant, but when she did, she slowly walked forward to him. She lightly fell on to him, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"W-Where are we going?" she asked, the question bothering her for some time.

"Why should I answer any of your questions?" he retorted back, perhaps a little too rudely.

She didn't respond but her face fell into sadness at his comment. Roku somehow noticed this.

"…Okay, okay, I'm sorry for saying that. I'm just used to getting answers to all of my questions, that's all. And you're sort of a mystery."

Without saying anything else, he grabbed her legs and held her firmly against him. With that, he pushed chakra into his legs and jumped up the side of the mountain, no longer needing to have to walk alongside it.

It didn't take him but several minutes to actually reach the top, which was his personal training ground.

"Close your eyes!" he called back to her, making sure that she would do it. "No peaking!"

She nodded and closed her eyes tight while Roku jumped to the top of the mountain.

The area was quite large, and it was lush and full of trees. One would assume that the top of such a high mountain would be a peak and cold, but this was not the case. There was also a large and magnificent lake in the center of the area, with a small piece of land in the middle of the waters covered in grass.

Roku pulled her along to the opposite side of the mountain, where there was a large tree coming out of the ground. Using chakra once more, he jumped up to a thick branch, and allowed Naminé to fall off of his back and onto the branch, though he still held her hand so that she wouldn't fall. He helped her sit down, and when she was, he sat down next to her, leaning on the trunk of the tree.

"You can open your eyes now," he said, with nearly unnoticeable excitement in his voice.

When she did, she was instantly shocked with the view. From her sitting position on the tree, she could perfectly see the setting sun, as well as the entire village of Kumo below her. On the sides were clouds on their eye level, as well as other mountains that grew into the air. The view was stunning.

Roku smirked at her expression, satisfied that he had surprised her.

"What do you think?" he asked her, always being a sucker for good views himself. "I found this out one day while I was training up here and I was practicing chakra control by climbing trees."

Naminé wasn't even able to take her eyes off of the sight to respond to him.

"It's…unreal…" she mumbled to herself, her eyes darting all over the landscape.

However, the two were unable to enjoy the view for long because it was late in the day and the sun was just completing its journey across the sky. The sky soon began to darken and the sun completely disappeared from sight, causing Naminé to wake up from her daydream.

"There's one more thing I want to show you," Roku said, standing up on the trunk. He helped her stand up too and when she did he jumped off of the tree with her. After, he motioned her to climb on his back again, which she did. He then jogged to the lake which was in the middle of the area, and using chakra, he traveled across the water (which caused Naminé to gasp) to the small piece of land that was in the middle of the lake.

The small piece of land was covered in grass and was only big enough to hold a small house on. Roku once more allowed for Naminé to fall off of his back, and on to the ground. Then, walking into the middle of the small island, he laid down with a happy sigh so that his back was on the ground and his hands were on his head. He motioned for Naminé to do the same.

She nervously did, lying down next to Roku, wondering what he had in mind.

"I found this out when I was training on this island with my taijutsu forms and such. I fell on the ground from exhaustion and I couldn't get up to go back home, so I just decided to fall asleep here. I was surprised with what I found out. You won't see it now though; I think you have to wait for about ten minutes or so."

Naminé nodded, now becoming excited for what she was going to see. The two laid together in silence, both of them just enjoying the other's company.

"You know," Roku finally said, "I've never shown anyone this area before, not even my good friend Kinzoku. I don't know why, but I thought that you would appreciate it or something," he said, sharing his thoughts with her.

Naminé's eyes widened at the statement.

"A-Arigatou Roku-san," she said, feeling honored that he would share such a private place with her.

Roku scoffed at the name.

"Please, don't call me Roku-san, or 'sama', or anything formal like that. All my life I'm called 'Roku-sama', or 'Roku-dono', or 'Roku-san'. But you're my firend! You don't have to call me any of those!"

Naminé's eyes widened once again and she turned away from him in shock.

…a friend? Did he just say that she was his friend…?

Her cheeks heated up with just the thought of having a friend. Her first friend! It was amazing! He considered her his friend!

It took her a while to be able to control her thoughts enough to respond.

"Th-Thank you, Roku-k-kun," she tried saying. She had read a book that told her that 'kun' was a more familiar name that she could call a boy, so she hoped that it would work in this situation.

Now, Roku laughed at being called that. Naminé blushed an even deeper red in embarrassment and fear that her new 'friend' was laughing at her.

"Ha! I don't ever remember being called that before!" he said, laughing loudly. When he noticed the look on Naminé's face however, he stopped laughing and merely smiled.

"Don't worry, it's all right! It's just that I don't have that many friends who are girls, so I'm not used to being called that. But if you call me that, I guess that means I get to call you Naminé-chan, alright?" he said, smiling to himself.

Naminé couldn't remember ever blushing so much in one day, but today she broke whatever her previous record was. When she had read a book about what people call each other and such, she found out that 'chan' was a suffix for a familiar female person, but it could also be translated into someone who the other person thought was very special.

"Oh, it's ready now. Look up," Roku said, pointing to the sky.

Naminé had no idea how she had missed it before, but the sky had darkened, and stars glittered above them. The view was...unbelievable!

"I used fall asleep up here while watching the stars," Roku commented. "My parents used to bother me about it, but they're used to it now. I wish I could see again so that I could watch the stars once more."

"They're…so beautiful!" Naminé commented for him, never before having seen such a beautiful sight in Kumo.

Roku smiled at the comment and closed his eyes, deeply inhaling the nights scent.

"I can't wait to activate my bloodline limit," he told her next. He had already told her about his clan's bloodline a while ago. "I'm going to come to the top of the mountain, and activate it! I'll be able to see everything touching the mountain! Every house, every person! It'll be amazing!"

Naminé nodded unable to take her eyes off of the starry sky above her.

Slowly but surely, she began to fall asleep beside Roku. But instead of fighting against it, she allowed it to enwrap her in a cozy blanket, letting herself fall into contented slumber.

_The Next Week__, Morning_

Whatever constrictions had been holding off Naminé's personality before now weren't in existence. After that one night they had spent together, and after her called her 'Naminé-chan' and 'his friend', the blonde haired girl had instantly dropped all of her precautions around Roku and began to show her true attitude.

And he was impressed.

He had never had such a…vivid and stunning friend before, who happened to be a girl.

She was so full of pure and almost naïve emotions that it was a huge relief from normal life to spend time with her, which Roku found himself doing more nearly every day. She was always smiling, and always asking questions about things she saw, almost like she had never seen anything before. She had even asked him once what a mountain was, to his amusement. But he enjoyed sharing what he knew with her, and soon his own personality constrictions began to fall into pieces when he was around her.

Their friendship would be considered perfect if not for two things.

One was that there were still secrets between them. He had no idea where she came from or anything else about her past, and she had no idea that he held a Bijuu inside of him. He had never had to tell anyone about his inner demon, and when he had found out that she didn't know about it, he didn't know whether or not he should tell her.

Another problem was that he couldn't actually _see _hear.

He could hear her charming voice, and he could feel her soft touch, he could even smell her own unique scent and sense her own unique chakra, but he had no eyes which he could see her with. It aggravated him to know end that he had no idea what she looked like.

And she could cook ramen! Wonderful, flavorful ramen!

That fact alone had caused him to each lunch with her every day.

With that thought in mind, he prepared himself to jump off of the top of the mountain, ready to head down from his training to go and eat lunch…

When he sensed Naminé herself coming up to him.

He was surprised to find that Naminé had walked up the mountain with a packed lunch in her hand, waving at him.

"Hi, Roku-kun!" she called out from the far side of the mountain top.

He drooled at the intense smell of ramen that came with her and he instantly sunk into the earth, reappearing right in front of her.

Before he could even greet her in response, she dropped the bags and hugged him in pure excitement. She did this nearly every time she saw him, almost like just seeing him made her day. Hey, it wasn't like he objected it. Girls in the academy had always groped onto him in the academy but he had never felt _real _hugs before from anyone!

He could feel her smile into his chest as she tightly wrapped her arms around him, giggling to herself.

"You always come to eat at the ramen bar at the exact same time every day," she explained, still holding on to him, "so today Kigurou allowed me to bring breakfast up to you as a treat! And he said that I could spend the rest of the day with you!"

He could tell that she was extremely excited about this, even if it meant that she would only get to watch him train for several hours. He supposed that _that _was more interesting than hanging around alone at the ramen bar, anyways.

"That's great!" he said, thinking up of his own ideas of what they could do. "We have to do something special then! I know! My parents have a meeting arranged with some important and rich daimyo in a nearby land. I could ask if we could go with them, and then we could explore the area when we go with them!"

Naminé smiled, thinking that it would be a great idea. She had never seen anything outside of Kumo before, and she couldn't wait to explore more of the continent. So the two sat down together in the middle of the grass island, and they enjoyed each other's company as they ate lunch.

_Later, Roku's House, Morning_

"And why would you and your friend want to come with us?" his father asked him as he sat behind his large desk. "You have never showed any interest of exploring outside of the village before."

Roku sighed, tired of trying to explain his strange behavior to his father.

"I don't know why I want to do it now, I but just want to spend some time with Naminé outside of the village. I think she would really enjoy it!"

Roku's father sighed. Since when did his son ever really care about anyone else, especially a girl? He always avoided the female type, ever since entering the academy!

"Please, father! I've already talked with her boss and he said that it would be fine!" Roku pleaded rather uncharacteristically.

Roku's father remained silent for several moments before he smiled and nodded his head.

"Very well, you and your friend may travel with us to the country. But before we leave, I have one thing that I want to share with you," he said, looking at Roku seriously.

"The Chunin Exam's are coming up in several months, and I want you to represent the Korochi clan and attend with two other Genin," he said, surprising Roku. "Of course, this means that your training will intensify, and when you leave for the exams, expect to be gone for over two months or so."

It took a while for Roku to process the information, but eventually he nodded and bowed to his father.

"Hai. I will uphold the honor of the Korochi."

With that, he turned to leave the office and prepared to leave with Naminé.

_Kiri_

"This man is most...elusive," Itachi commented, sighing as he met up with Sub-Zero in the front of the village.

The Lin Kuei nodded and grunted in response.

"Kiri is too big of a place! We've already spent so much time searching here! There's also the islands that we have to search...I say we split up."

Itachi glared at the ice-nin with his Sharingan activated.

"You and I both know that Pain has forbidden that. He cautioned us that Zabuza is strong enough that both of us should be present to fight him. Don't you remember? Madara fought the Leader and managed to live, and Zabuza fought Madara and managed to live. We need to take caution."

Sub-Zero frowned beneath his mask at this but agreed nonetheless.

"Very well. Let's continue searching. He can't stay hidden forever."

_Training Ground, Konoha_

It had been a while since Naruto last opened the elemental scroll that had been given to him from Shujinko in Kusa. It wasn't as much use to him as he wanted it to be. It carefully instructed for him not to go on with the different practices until he was competent at the element itself, and currently, he only had _wind _to work with. And he wasn't even a master at his own element!

But that would change soon. He had read in the scroll about the Shadow Clones that they could be used to train as well as fight. Naruto knew that whatever thoughts the clones thought could be mentally sent to him, only if their Rinnegan was activated as well as his. But, if they were to train, apparently all of their mental intelligence would be passed on to him. Not any physical differences, but if would be as if he had trained 2 times over, or however many clones he made.

So, now Naruto stood in the middle of the training grounds which Nagato had made for him so long ago, and he stood still with his hands in the Shadow Clone seal.

Pushing a large amount of chakra into the seal, he activated the jutsu, hoping to get at least twenty or so shadow clones.

He was surprised however when all of his vision was blocked off by the massive amounts of smoke that filled up a large section training of the grounds, almost like a bomb. When the smoke cleared, he was surprised to find at least 200 hundred identical clones standing before him.

He was stunned. He quickly looked around him as he was suddenly the center of attention in front of 200 masked blondes. However, the clones themselves seemed surprised with how many there were of them. He also felt a large amount of energy that drained from him, and he struggled for a moment to stay standing.

"Um...hello?" Naruto tried to shout out to all of them, hoping that they would hear them. "You all know why you were summoned, right?" he said, hoping that they shared the same thoughts as he did.

All of the Naruto's nodded, knowing that if they shouted back 'yes', the real Naruto would likely fall over and become deaf.

"Great! I guess since I made so many of...me...we can all train in different aspects. But, I don't know how I can supervise all of the training..."

Naruto appeared to think for a moment, when suddenly a clone in the crowd shouted out.

"What about creating five clones with your Rinnegan" the clone recommended. "That way, they could be in charge of separate groups, and you can relay information to them."

The entire crowd mumbled in response, thinking that it was a good idea. The mere conversations they were having with themselves were enough to drown out all of the sound in the area.

The real Naruto nodded, and he formed the special seal once again. This time, however, he activated his Rinnegan, and he pushed chakra into his eyes while he tried to make the right amount of clones.

The result was five clones appearing beside Naruto instead of four, and they all had the Rinnegan.

"_Damn. You have to work on creating the right amount of chakra for each clone, so that you can make the correct number that you want," _one of the Rinnegan clones mentally told him. Naruto agreed, seeing how he was thinking the exact thing as well

"Alright everybody pay attention!" Naruto shouted out, to get the attention of the clones. "You will all be split up into five groups, with a Rinnegan clone in charge to relay information to me."

He pointed to the Rinnegan clone closest to him.

"You, take about 30 clones and go and work on _wind _style taijutsu and kenjutsu. Here are the scrolls."

The clone nodded and he picked off around thirty clones and went to the far end of the training grounds to work with the clones. Naruto then pointed to the other Rinnegan clone.

Naruto tossed the _wind _taijutsu scroll over to the Rinnegan clone and then that clone went to go work with his clones. Naruto then went to the next clone.

"You know the drill. Take your group and work with _wind _manipulation."

The clone nodded and left. Naruto went on to the next Rinnegan Clone, which he would eventually call a 'Commander'.

"You, go with your group and work with chakra control."

"Yes sir!"

And the next Commander.

"Go work on ninjutsu."

And finally, only around thirty clones were left, with one Commander.

"Last group, go work on your studies. I have a sealing scroll full of other scrolls I took from the Namikaze's library."

He tossed the scroll to the Commander and then he sighed to himself as he observed all of the training that was already being done.

_I hope this all works out_...

_Three Hours Later_

Naruto himself had been working on the Shadow Clone jutsu. He had found a detailed scroll about that in the Namikaze library, and he was reading of all of the secrets that it really held.

Apparently, not only could he control the perfect amount of clones that he could summon, but he could control _where _he summoned them. For example, the clone didn't have to appear right next to him; he could actually make it appear right next to an enemy 20 meters away! Naruto had tried working on this, and he wasn't that good yet, but his Rinnegan helped him project the jutsu to where he wanted it to be, and he was improving quickly.

Also, the scroll had said that only a novice clone would actually make smoke when summoned. A perfect summon would actually have no smoke, and the clone would appear as if he had shunshined there; only a shimmer would appear. Naruto would work on that tomorrow.

But the most interesting thing he learned is that he could actually make different types of clones. He had realized that most of the clones he had made had dispersed by now. The clones working on ninjutsu and chakra had used up too much of their own chakra and they dispersed, giving Naruto what memory they possessed. The taijutsu clones accidently hit each other too hard, and occasionally one of them would disperse.

However, if Naruto could focus his chakra correctly, he could make a clone that had a larger amount of chakra, so that it could use much more ninjutsu. On the other hand, he could make the clones that worked on taijutsu have a stronger build, so that they could take a couple of hits before they would disperse.

In short, Naruto had a _lot _of work to do with the shadow clones, and he was extremely excited for what the possibilities could be.

"_Alright, Commanders, order your clones to disperse. We're done with training for the day." _ Naruto ordered to the Rinnegan clones.

"_Yes sir!"_ came six immediate responses.

All of a sudden, all of the clones disappeared, and all of their memories and knowledge flooded into Naruto's brain.

In seconds, Naruto fell to the ground, unconscious. If he had spent a little more time reading his own scroll, he would have found out that it was dangerous for a large group of clones that have been storing up knowledge to disperse at the same time. He was definitely going to be late for dinner!

_Unknown Location_

Pain stood aside the seated Dark Lord as he attended the private meeting that the Leader had called for.

"You may enter," the dark voice of the Leader said, looking at the large door that stood in front of him.

The doors swung open, and two Akatsuki members strode in the room. The rings that they wore on their finger read _Thief_, and _Nature._

They knelt down before the Leader, bowing their heads in respect.

"Rise."

They did as they were instructed, and they rose from their position.

"As you know, I will be departing from the organization for a period of time," the Evil King said. "I am regaining my former power. And as you know, Pain will become the leader of the organization in my absence."

The two nodded, aware of this already.

"The two of you will be in charge of the funding of the organization. Kakuzu, you will be the treasurer, and you will manage the money from the missions that Pain assigns you. That is all. You are dismiss-"

"Hold on!"

The Leader cocked his head in curiosity as he looked at the bold member before him. Pain's eyes narrowed as he eyed the member down with an emotionless look in his eyes.

"What is it, Hidan?" the Leader asked.

The silver haired member held up his left hand, showing off the ring that was on his pinky finger.

"This!" he nearly shouted with his face full of fury. "I don't want this fucking ring anymore! I want a new one!" he said, motioning to the ring that was titled _Nature_.

The Leader continued to give him a somewhat curious look

"And why might that be? Are you unsatisfied with it?" he asked.

Hidan nodded his head.

"Hell yes! Why the fuck would _I _be wearing a fucking ring that is labeled _Nature_! What the fuck does nature mean anyway? I want a new label!"

Kakuzu, Hidan's partner, sighed as he had heard about this from the loud man many times.

"And what do you desire it to be called?" the Leader asked, surprising everyone with his generosity.

"I want it to be labeled _Death..._or even better, _Shadow_!" Hidan said excitingly.

The Leader nodded.

"Very well. As you have said it, so it shall be."

The ring on Hidan's hand suddenly burst into purple flames, badly burning him in the process. The Jashin worshipper cried out in pain as he waved his hand around, trying to dispel the flames.

And just as instantly as the flames had appeared, they disappeared, leaving the ring with the new label of _Shadow_.

While Hidan was satisfied with his new ring name, he was _pissed _that he had to have his hand burned in the process.

"Ah! You fucker! I'll kill you, you piece of shit!"

Losing his control, Hidan pulled out his three bladed scythe from his back, looking at the Leader with anger in his eyes. Kakuzu recognized the silver-headed man's intentions, and he tried to stop him, but he was too late.

Hidan threw his scythe at an insane speed directly at the leader, aiming to kill…

Until the blade stopped right in its track, halfway to the Leader's face.

Pain, the one responsible for stopping the scythe, flicked his wrist sideways, sending the scythe flying into the nearby wall. Hidan growled as he pulled the rope connected to his weapon, causing it to fly back to his hand.

"Stay out of this Pain!" he yelled, now looking at the calm expression on the orange haired man, standing next to the leader.

"May I discipline him for you, Dark Lord?" Pain asked, turning his Rinnegan eyes toward the amused man who was now chuckling.

"Yes."

Pain then turned his full attention toward the fearless Akatsuki, who was now alone as Kakuzu had thoughtfully backed away.

"I won't kill you, but I will have you realize that you will_ never _attack the Leader again," Pain said, his voice low and laced with powerful chakra.

Hidan merely laughed at him.

"Ha! You words mean nothing! I can't _physically _be killed, and pain means little to me!"

Pain didn't respond, and he merely held his hand out toward Hidan. His palm flashed a bright white for a split moment, and suddenly Hidan was blasted backwards into a wall with a powerful Shinra Tensei.

It took several moments for the rubble and dust to clear, only to reveal a seemingly unharmed Hidan, coming out laughing.

"That tickled!" he bragged, brushing off the dust that was covering his cloak. "My healing powers and near invincibility is the perfect combination!"

Pain's eyes narrowed down at the man, as he realized the truth behind his words. Suddenly, Hidan pointed at Pain, and his shadow dashed forward from underneath him, headed straight for Pain.

The second-in-command recognized the technique and he was able to jump in the air to avoid it, landed farther to the right, which was out of Hidan's surprisingly far range.

"You can't be…a Nara?" Pain questioned, looking at Hidan with curiosity in his eyes. Hidan laughed again.

"Nara? Not a chance! Those weak fuckers disgrace the art of shadow!"

Pain nodded as the information began sinking into this brain. Unlike the Uchiha, for example, the Nara's main jutsu was not of a kekke genkai. Anyone could learn the technique of shadow control, only the Nara kept theirs a family secret. So it _was _possible that someone outside of Konoha knew of the technique.

Before he could think any more, a shield of shadow appeared in front of Hidan hundreds of shadow senbon burst from it, headed toward Pain at high speeds.

Pain cursed as he held his hand up, having to block the projectiles with a shield of gravity around him.

When the attacked ceased, Pain frowned as he realized that he would actually have to exert himself in the battle. After all, Hidan was an S-ranked ninja.

He closed his eyes as he created a plan in his mind, trying to fuse all of his new techniques into it so it would become a good practice to him.

_Fifteen Minutes Later_

Hidan finally collapsed on the ground, due to exhaustion and pain. Pain stood over him, frowning down at him as he pulled out his pure black sword that had been embedded in Hidan.

Or to better put it, _six _Pains stood in front of Hidan, all frowning down at him.

Hidan cursed as he realized how pathetic he truly was compared to Pain. He was S-ranked himself, and quite powerful, as well as immortal, but it was even out of _his _league to fight _six _S-ranked ninja!

Every shadow attack he sent would be absorbed by the Pain with brown hair who only used _earth _style moves with the exception of one technique that absorbed all of his attacks.

His taijutsu was useless! It was as if Pain could see every attack from every angle before he could even get close! No movements were even wasted!

Pain was superior, and Hidan was reminded the hard way.

The Leader began laughing as he realized how amusing the fight had been in front of him. His second-in-command truly was powerful!

Kakuzu sighed as he carried his bloody and multiply-stabbed partner out of room, disappearing from sight.

Pain sighed as well as he dispelled his clone summons and turned to face the leader.

"You did well, Pain," the Dark Lord complimented. Pain nodded in acknowledgment of the compliment. "I chose well when I picked you to be my second in command. You possess eyes with such unbelievable power, a power that I have not seen in many years…"

After several minutes of instructions, Pain disappeared out of the room, returning to his own room to rest and restore his energy.

_Kumo__, Entrance_

Roku stood next to Naminé at the entrance of Kumo, ready to leave with his family to go on their trip with them. His father had informed him that they would be traveling to the Mountain Country, which was a part of Kumo, and it was a three hour trip to it by horse. There were a bunch of horses to pull the carriages which were in front of them, and they would pull them down the mountain trail and to the village.

Roku had brought with him a backpack with some money and other goods in it, but Naminé had brought nothing with her, to her dismay.

"Are you sure I'll be alright?" she asked him again, obviously worried. She pulled on his sleeve to get his attention, hoping that he would give her an answer.

Roku sighed at her antics and turned his head to her.

"I already told you, you'll be fine! I can pay for you if you need to buy anything!"

She frowned at the fact that he would have to pay for her, but she didn't ask him again. She was still wearing her causal one piece white dress that went down to above her knees, and Roku was wearing his usual black shirt with white pants.

They waited for a few more moments, and Roku's dad walked up to them.

"Are you two ready to leave?" he asked, looking back and forth between his son and Naminé. She nodded rather timidly, but Roku causally nodded.

His father smiled.

"Good. We will be leaving to the Mountain Country at once. As you know, Konoha had been having a minor war with them, but before they could be really harmed, a peace treaty was formed. They're doing fine now though, and I just wanted you two to know something about the place before we go there. Today is an anniversary of their peace treaty with Konoha, so they are going to have some sort of carnival during the evening and night. You two are free to attend if you wish to. Actually, I don't want you present at my meeting, so you should explore the area more and visit some sites.

"And one more thing," he said, the driver of the carriage motioning that he was prepared. "The daimyo that we are seeing has a daughter that is your age Roku. They are a very wealthy family, and she is of important blood. It's possible that an arranged marriage can be formed between you two, so see if she is suitable for the job. It would be rather easy if we got this whole marriage business out of the way earlier on in your life."

With that, his father walked away from them and sat in his carriage with his wife. Roku frowned at the last comment and walked into his own carriage with Naminé.

Around forty-five minutes later, the carriage reached the bottom of the mountain. Roku and Naminé hadn't said much, but she was clearly excited that she would be seeing a new area. She had her head stuck out of the carriage to get a good view of the scenery for entire trip thus far, and Roku was beginning to think that she might actually fall out.

Suddenly, an idea came to his mind and a mischievous grin spread across his face. Making sure to stay silent, he crept out to the other side of the carriage while Naminé was busy staring wide-eyed at all of the scenery. He grabbed the top of the carriage, and he flipped himself over, so that he landed on the top in a crouching position.

Smiling, he walked to the other end of the roof to where Naminé was intently leaning out the window. Crouching again, he leaned himself over, so that his face appeared in front of hers.

"Hey."

Naminé was so badly shocked at the sudden appearance of Roku's face so close to hers, that she shrieked and fell forward, out of the opening. Roku however had been expecting this, and he grabbed her hand and flipped her over onto the roof next to him. How he was able to grab her arm while he was blind, she hadn't the slightest clue.

After several moments of heavy breathing on her part, Naminé finally turned to Roku with an angry look on her face.

"R-Roku-kun!" she said, trying to calm down her flush. "That was mean!"

Roku shrugged it off as if he had done nothing wrong. He sat down, and pulled down Naminé so that she was sitting too.

"Whatever. I just thought that you would enjoy the view."

She was about to retort when she actually did look around her, finding out that the view was in fact much better than before. Instead of just using one side of the carriage to look out of, she could now see the entire view of lush mountains and valleys.

Several minutes of silence went on as they both enjoyed the view as the carriages rolled along. However, Naminé had a question on her mind that had been bothering her for a while.

"Um...Roku?" she asked, not needing to turn to look at him. He didn't need to respond and he let her continue with her question.

"Before," she said, "when you were talking with your dad, he said something about 'marriage'. I have a question...what exactly _is _marriage?" she asked, now looking up to him with curious eyes.

Roku shook his head in disbelief at the mere question. Who was this girl? Did she grow up in a cave? Everyone knew what marriage was!

"Well," he tried to explain, "When two people really love each other, they completely devote themselves to each other in the form of marriage. Marriage means basically that the two people love each other and they will for the rest of their lives."

Naminé nodded in understanding as the idea of marriage sunk in for her.

"But...why would you marry this girl your father was talking about?" she asked. "How can you love her if you've never met her?"

Roku sighed at the question.

"That's called an arrange marriage. That's when you're getting your spouse chosen for you, regardless of love. While arranged marriages aren't unheard of in Kumo and the Korochi, my dad respects my decision and I could tell that he was joking for the most part."

Naminé nodded, feeling oddly relieved. She guessed that it was because she wouldn't want Roku to marry someone that he didn't love.

The rest of the carriage ride went on uneventful, until they finally reached the Mountain Country.

_Mountain Country_

When they arrived in the Mountain Country, it was around noon. They traveled directly through the area until they reached a large mansion that could be seen from far away. Even the Korochi were impressed with the beauty of the house.

They were carefully escorted to the front of the house, where they went inside, being escorted by a butler.

Roku frowned as he continued to listen to Naminé's frequent gasps of amazement.

"Man, I really wish that could see this place!" he commented after Naminé accidently told him to look at the large fountain when they had walked in. She blushed in embarrassment when she was reminded of his inability to actually see.

It didn't take long until the wife of the daimyo, or so Roku assumed, walked in the area and greeted his parents graciously. They talked lightly for a few moments, until she motioned for another person to come into the entrance area.

"Kaori dear," she said, almost a little too nicely, "please escort our guest to the guest room, and ask the servant to serve you all tea or something."

With that, the main group of 'important' people left to go to wherever the daimyo was waiting, leaving behind a girl with that seemed to be their age. Naminé was surprised to find out that the girl had…dark _green _hair, which she had certainly never seen before. She would ask Roku later if green hair wasn't unheard of, but now was not the right time.

The green haired girl who had been called Kaori politely greeted them, and she asked them kindly to follow her into the guest room.

_Guest Room_

"So, may I ask what your names are?" she asked, sitting nervously at one of the seats that were available. Roku and Naminé sat next to each other, with Roku lazily looking toward the new girl, and Naminé looking around stunned at the beautiful room surrounding her.

"I'm Roku and this is Naminé," Roku answered for both of them. He looked at her curiously, asking his next usual question.

"What's your hair color?" he said, acting like he didn't say anything strange.

Kaori gave him a funny look, but smiled non-the-less.

"Um, it's dark green," she said, earning herself an equally funny look from Roku.

"Really? What's your eye color then?" he asked next, trying to picture a dark-green haired girl.

"...it's also dark green," she responded, wondering why he was asking her this. "Why are you asking me? Can't you see for yourself?"

Naminé just then jumped into the conversation.

"Oh, he can't," she said, smiling at the girl. "He's blind; he can't see anything!"

Kaori's eyes widened as she looked in shock at Roku, as well as a new appreciation. How could he walk around so well? She didn't even notice that he was blind!"

"Ya, it's pretty amazing, isn't it?" Naminé proclaimed, smiling at Roku who was frowning from being stared at so much.

Just then, Roku turned his head quickly to the side as he heard another person quietly enter the room. Seeing this action, Kaori turned around to look as well.

She smiled when she saw that it was the house servant who had entered.

"Oh, there you are!" she greeted, waving for her to come over for a moment. The female servant that had entered had dark brown hair, as well as dark eyes, and was wearing a dull one piece maid outfit, which was in contrast to the richness of the house which surrounded her.

"Can you please get all of us a cup of green tea?" she asked politely, looking at her with the slightest hint of worry in her eyes.

"Hai, Kaori-sama," the servant replied in an empty voice void of emotion. With that, she left the room, leaving to prepare the tea that Kaori had requested.

When she had gone, Naminé looked curiously at Kaori. She was wondering why the girl had just come in and left without introducing herself, which was custom.

"Who was that?" she asked, causing Kaori to turn and look at her. The green-haired girl sighed as she began to explain to Naminé who the maid was.

"That was our household maid," she explained. "My mother...adopted her, or so to say, a while ago. She's still new here, and it she still hasn't really taken well to my home. Her name is Matsuri. She was originally from Suna before she came here."

Naminé nodded as she accepted the new information. Soon enough, Matsuri returned with a tray of tea. She placed the cups in front of everyone, before leaving immediately after Kaori thanked her.

The three kids didn't have much to talk about, but eventually Kaori decided to bring something up.

"Today is an anniversary of when Konoha made a treaty with Mountain Country," she brought up, having finished her tea. "To celebrate, each year a carnival comes by! I can't go, but you two could probably get out of here and go walk around town to see it. It's really fun!"

Roku nodded at the good idea. He had come here in the first place so that he could get out of Kumo with Naminé for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity.

"Alright," he said. "Just tell me how to get there."

_Mountain Village_

Roku and Naminé were currently on an aerial tramway, which was similar to the lifts back in Kumo, except this one was in a closed cable car. They had been riding in it for about twenty minutes, traveling through the high valley, and Naminé was clearly enjoying herself while she was looking out the window.

"Hey Naminé?" he asked her, reading a brochure that he had picked up of the carnival. "Do you want to go to the zoo first?"

She turned around, smiling, and gave him a curious look.

"Um...what's a zoo?" she asked, wondering what he was talking about.

Roku couldn't count how many times he had heard things like this from around Naminé. She would always ask things like this! What's an Anbu, what's a Kage, what's a girlfriend, what's marriage, what's a zoo! She acted like she was born yesterday!

"A zoo is a place where they contain strange and unique animals that you don't see around here. They capture them from around the world," he explained. He was surprised when her aura considerably darkened.

"That's a zoo..."she said, now frowning, "I'm not sure that I would like such a place.

_Thirty Minutes Later_

"Kawaii!"

Naminé in pure delight as looked at the swan before her in the pond. She leaned over the railings as she tried to get a closer look at the magnificent animal. Hearts formed in her eyes as she watched it spread its wings and flap around.

Roku, however, sighed as he received strange looks from the people walking by him a Naminé. He had never seen someone so...euphoric and overjoyed with seeing different animals. She had reacted the same way when he had showed her the gorillas...

She quickly turned to Roku and tugged on his arms.

"I want to go see more!" she nearly yelled at him, blushing with happiness. He couldn't help but smiled at her radiant joy. It was contagious!

"Um...let's walk over here," he said, pointed to his left, where there was a 'safari' sign held up.

She nodded, and grabbed his hand, leading him toward it, as if he didn't know how to walk by himself.

When they walked into the safari area, Naminé yelped in joy as she immediately let go of Roku's hand as she ran to a new area where there was a _gigantic _creature eating some grass.

"Ahh!" she screamed happily, running quickly toward the railing of the area and leaning over once more. "W-What's this one called?" she asked, not even turning around to look at Roku.

Roku frowned as he tried to feel the small charka the creature was naturally emitting. He listened to the sounds that it was making, and he struggled to guess what it was. Going to the zoo wasn't nearly as fun as it was for Naminé, due to the fact her couldn't see.

Suddenly, the animal let out a loud undeniable trumpet like sound, causing Naminé to once more scream out in joy along with it. Roku smiled as he instantly knew what the animal was called.

"That's an elephant," he called out to Naminé, who had more hearts in her eyes. He gave her a funny look, and when she noticed it, she blushed in embarrassment.

"W-Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked nervously.

Roku smiled as he shook his head and moved along the safari.

"It's nothing!" he responded, laughing at the look was sure she was giving. "I've just never heard someone who was so excited at seeing all these animals, especially when you claimed that you wouldn't even like it!"

She blushed deeper in embarrassment as she remembered what she had said.

"Um...well..." She stopped talking as her eyes widened as she looked behind Roku.

"AHHH!" she squealed again, scaring the crap out of Roku.

She ran right by him to observe the golden lion that she had just noticed, causing Roku to sigh once more.

_Later_

It was late in the afternoon and Roku and Naminé had left the zoo, and they were sitting together next to a nearby creek. They had both their sandals off, and they were letting their feet fall into the moving waters of the creek so that it would cool them off.

Roku's eyes widened as Naminé leaned against him, smiling as she kicked her feet up and down.

"Thank you, Roku-kun!" she randomly said, causing him to wonder why she had said it.

"Um, for what?" he asked.

She smiled as she looked up into his pale eyes.

"For taking me out on this trip!" she responded. "You've been so nice to me!"

He shrugged it off as he smiled back at her.

"It's no problem. I just thought that you needed to get out of Kumo for a while and see a little of the outside world."

Upon saying that, a memory suddenly came into his mind.

"Uh, Naminé, there's something I just remembered," she nervously said, hoping that she wouldn't react harshly to it.

She hummed in response as she continued to lie against him and close her eyes.

"In a couple of months, I'm going to go to Konoha to take the Chunin Exams," he told her, knowing that she had no idea what it was. So, before her could ask, he explained it all to her. "The Chunin Exams are a test of my ninja skills, along with a bunch of others from different villages. I go there on a team of two other people, and we get tested to see if we are good enough to become the next ninja rank, which is Chunin.

"I'll be gone for several months, and you're not allowed to come with me," he concluded, causing her open her eyes and gasp.

"I wish you could come, but I can only go with whoever my sensei will be and my two other teammates, who have to be ninja. I really do wish that you could come! I do!"

He frowned at the sadness he felt coming from her. Kuso! He knew that he should have waited to tell her! He just ruined the great day she was having!

Suddenly, she stood up, and she turned to face him with a fierce look in her eyes.

"Then I'll become a ninja!" she proclaimed boldly.

Roku smiled at her attempt, but he shook his head as reality came to him.

"You can't just become a ninja now and join the exams! It'd be too dangerous!"

She looked at him again, smiled sadly at him now. She suddenly clapped her hands together, causing Roku's eye's to widen immediately.

He may not have yet activated his Kurokugan, but he could sense the large amount of chakra that was emitting from Naminé. What was going on?

Suddenly, a large gale of wind passed around them, causing the waters to flow rapidly and Roku to have to try and grab the ground so that he wouldn't be blown away.

Just as quickly as the wind had come, it vanished, leaving Naminé standing in front of Roku.

"W-W-Was that y-you?" Roku stuttered out, shocked at what had just happened. She had just used ninjutsu!

"It was," she sadly replied. "I'm not a ninja, but I can use my special...bloodline limit, as you would call it, to control the wind. I can fight hand to hand, and I know how to use a bow and arrow. I can become a ninja!"

Roku still backed away from her warily as all of the information flooded in.

"H-How is this possible?" he asked. "You've tricked me this entire time! I thought that you weren't able to fight!"

Worry began to cover her face. She knew that if she would reveal her secret to Roku now, he would most run away. But she also knew the consequences of revealing her powers to him. She didn't know why she did it, but she felt like she had to. She wouldn't have Roku, who was the light in her world; have to go away from her for so long! And she didn't want to hide from him anymore!

"I'm...sorry that I didn't tell you before!" she cried out, worried that he wouldn't like her anymore. "I was afraid to tell anyone about myself! I still have a lot of secrets, but I don't want you to leave me now that you've become my friend!"

She surprised him again when she jumped down next to him, giving him a hug, burying herself in his shoulder, crying her eyes out.

"You're the only friend that I've ever had! I didn't want you to leave me!"

He shook his head in amazement at the ferocity that she was showing in her hug. It was as if she believed that he would get up and run away! She was holding on to him so tightly, that he wasn't sure if he could.

"N- Naminé-chan," he tried to tell her, "I'm not going to leave you, and I will always be your friend!" he said, causing her to look up at him in wonder. "I'm not mad at you for having your...powers, I'm just surprised! I'm not going to leave you, okay?"

She responded by hugging him even tighter now, smiling into him. He frowned as he tried to wrench her off of him; she was really starting to crush him!

"Geez! Stop freaking out!" he complained, laughing at how emotional she was being.

He sighed in defeat as she continued to hold on to him. He allowed himself to relax as he let his head fall to the green grass, looking up at the clouds.

_Later That Night_

Roku and Naminé had gone to the carnival together that night, and they had really enjoyed themselves. The meeting that Roku's parents were attending had gone on longer than expected, and it was too late to head back to Kumo now. So, Kaori's family had allowed them to stay at their house for the night.

The friends were sitting on top of the roof together, enjoying each other's company. Kaori's family had a really beautiful courtyard, and the moonlight perfectly illuminated it.

Naminé was once again leaning against Roku, who now didn't really care about the contact.

He was surprised when she sat up straight and looked away from him, nervously.

"What is it?" he asked, wondering why she was looking away. He had gotten to know her so well, and it didn't take actual sight for him to have to know what she was doing.

"I...I don't want to hide anymore secrets from you," she explained, taking deep breaths so that she could calm herself. "I want to tell you who I really am!"

Roku was curious as to what she meant by this, but he shook his head as he interrupted her.

"Let me go first," he said, surprising her. "I'm not just a normal ninja, like you would see on the outside." He had never had to tell anyone this before, because everyone in Kumo accepted him, and they already knew about it. But even though the people at his home village accepted him, he was extremely worried that Naminé wouldn't, which was scaring him.

"I'm a Jinchuuriki," he said, wondering if she had ever heard the word before. He knew that she hadn't when she gave him a questioning look as well as silence.

"That means that I have a demon sealed within me. Kumo has three Jinchuuriki, and I have the Seven-Tailed Phoenix sealed in me."

Naminé's eyes widened as she tried to imagine what that meant. There was a _demon_ inside of Roku? Not only that, but it was the _Seven-Tailed Phoenix_?

Roku began to worry after several moments of silence that she hadn't taken it well. This is why he was once again surprised when she hugged him.

"I've heard of the sealing process before," she explained, shocking him. "I know that you're not really a demon, and that the Nanabi is within your own prison. I'm okay with that," she said, smiling at him, and causing him to smile back. He had never told anyone that he had a demon inside of him, so he was shocked with how much relief was flooding through him.

"Thank you, Naminé-chan!" he said, now hugging her back. Eventually though, she backed away, getting ready to share her secret with him.

Roku waited in silence as Naminé stood still, wondering how she would bring such a large topic up.

"I'm...I'm not like you," she eventually said, still scared to say the full truth.

Roku frowned as he tried to wonder what that meant.

"What do you mean?" he asked, unable to piece anything together.

"I'm...not human."

Roku didn't know how to react to such a statement. That was ridiculous! How was she not human? She walked, talked, breathed, and ate like one! He didn't know whether she was making a joke and that he should laugh.

"If, you're not a human, then what are you?" he asked carefully, trying not to offend or fall for the joke.

"I'm an angel."

Roku's eyes now completely widened as he tried to grasp the statement. There was no humor in her voice, or anything else that would indicate that she was lying.

Naminé pushed her palms together, forming the palm seal, and deactivated the jutsu that had kept her hidden from the world for so long.

Two beautiful white wings began to grow out of her back, until they each became about two feet bigger than her own arm length. She moved one of them so that Roku could feel it, and the soft feathers brushed against him.

"I was banished from my home about a year ago, which is far above us in the sky, and I had to use a jutsu that hid my wings from everyone. I came down to the first civilization that I saw, which was the temple high in the mountains above Kumo. Eventually, I was instructed to go further down the mountain to Kumo, which was what I did. The night that I arrived here, I was hungry and in need of shelter. Luckily, Kigurou found me and he welcomed me in, even offering me a job and that I could live there. I worked at the ramen bar since then."

Roku still had his mouth agape at the story. He knew that Naminé was out of it all the time and that she didn't know things like what marriage was, but it was because she was an angel! His friend was an angel!

Suddenly, Roku was overcome by humor and he started to chuckle. Eventually, that chuckle turned into uncontrollable laughter which caused him to fall over, hysterically laughing.

Naminé blushed in embarrassment as she figured the Roku was mocking her. She had thought that Roku would reject her now that he knew that she wasn't human, but he didn't even believe her!

"P-Please, Roku-kun!" she pleaded over his laughter. "You have to believe me! I'm not lying!"

Her comments went in vain as Roku continued to laugh. Eventually though, he was able to calm down and breath normally again, which he did with a smile on his face.

But before she could try to convince him that she wasn't joking, he jumped up and wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace.

"I believe you," he whispered into her ear. "I just thought that it was funny that my best friend and my only friend who is a girl isn't _even_ a girl. She's an angel!"

Naminé's face began to flush rapidly at the sound of him telling her that she was his best friend while he was hugging her. She had never had a friend before, let alone a best friend, so it made her begin to cry when she heard what she had always wanted to hear.

"I like you for who you are," Roku continued, "and I will always be your best friend, even if I'm a demon and you're an angel."

_Several Weeks Later_

Everything was going perfectly for both Roku and Naminé. Ever since they revealed their deepest secrets to each other, they had become inseparable. Naminé had truly let go of herself around Roku, and she hid nothing from him. She would always smile and laugh with him, and hold his hand when they walked together. The two really were best friends.

And with her being an angel, it was possible for her to come with him to the Chunin Exams! She could always maintain the jutsu that kept her wings hidden inside of her. And, if he could teach her the basic skills of what ninja had, then she would actually have a chance to be on his team! Her chakra control was amazing, she had already learned how to use her chakra to walk on water and walk up trees.

What amazed Roku most however was her manipulation of _wind _and her ability to fly! When they were alone at the top of the mountain at their training ground, she would let him hold on to her as she activated her wings and flew around the top of the mountain. Then, she would hold onto Roku as he would swim underground with her through the earth itself.

Naminé had also shared her complete past with him. She had told him how she was raised, and how she was mistreated.

Roku was surprised with her connection with the Seven-Tailed Phoenix. She had told him that the Phoenix always used to attack the Kingdoms in the Sky, and that the angels always had difficulties fighting it. Angels were raised to utterly despise all of the demons, and to think little of the human race. Eventually, one of the archangels was powerful enough to face the demon head on and win. However, his glory didn't last long, as that same angel, who happened to be Naminé's sensei, attacked the Holy One and was banished from the Kingdom as well.

Naminé described her home to be set up in a system similar to humans. There was the leader, who was usually the most powerful in the kingdom, who was called the Holy One. The leader had seven archangels, who were the strongest angels aside from him, as his government. Naminé's sensei was an archangel who was powerful enough to attack the Holy One and steal the Elixir of Immortality.

Because of this, the entire kingdom hated Naminé, solely because she was the student of such a traitor. Eventually, for her own safety, the Holy One banished Naminé from the Kingdom so that his angels wouldn't be able to kill her in cold blood.

The Holy One also gave her a parting gift. He gave her an Angel's Bow, which was a special bow and arrow weapon which Naminé could use quite well.

Now, Roku and Naminé were enjoying their time together on his birthday. He was turning thirteen, and when it became noon, his vision would be restored and his Kurokugan would activate.

To say that he was extremely excited was an understatement!

He had been antsy all week, and he just couldn't wait for his vision to be restored. He would be able to see so many amazing things again! And of all the things that he wanted to see...

Naminé was at the top of the list.

He had known her for a long time now, and she was his best friend, but he still had no idea what she really looked like. He also wanted to see what she would look like with her angel wings activated, and well as the view of when they were flying together.

It was still morning, and Roku couldn't help but smile with Naminé as he waited for vision after a year of waiting.

_Hours Later_

It was 11:30 in the afternoon, and Roku was waiting in the large guest hall of the Korochi with his family, Naminé, and the rest of the clan. Kinzoku, his other friend, was waiting with him, as they had both gotten their seals activated at the same moment. The room was full of happy chatter as food and tea was passed around for the happy event.

Fifteen minutes.

Roku and Kinzoku conversed with each other and Naminé, discussing all of the fun things that they would do once they could finally see again.

Ten minutes.

Roku and Kinzoku now walked up to the platform as everyone finished with their conversations and their eating and drinking.

Five minutes.

Most people were now seated as they waited for Roku's father to begin the speech. Chatter was still light, and Roku was more nervous than ever.

Four minutes.

The room was now silent with the exception of Roku's father who was speaking in front of everyone.

"Everyone in this wonderful clan who is above the age of thirteen knows what it is like to spend a year without vision," he father said.

Most of the speech was ignored as Roku fidgeted in his seat, waiting for his vision to suddenly flow into him. Would it be painful? He hoped not.

Three Minutes.

Roku and Kinzoku now stood up, standing beside his father as they waited for him to finish his speech. Soon, they would be able to see, and the celebration would start! Roku couldn't wait for all of the food and dancing, but he wouldn't partake in any of that. No, he would grab Naminé and take her to a private room where he would just stare at her for however long he wanted to, and then-

_BOOM!_

Suddenly, his father's speech was cut short as the entire room shook with a tremendous force and the door to the hall burst open, flying into the air with an explosion.

Everyone's attention was immediately turned to the front of the room where there was a man wearing a black robe with red clouds on it, as well as an orange mask with spirals.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" Roku's father roared, absolutely furious that the ceremony of his own son was disrupted by this man.

Obito scratched the back of his head from all the attention that he was receiving.

"Uh...sorry about the door!" he said, trying to make sure that no one would attack him. "I just have a question to ask! Is this the ceremony for Roku, the Jinchuuriki of the Nanabi?" he politely asked, despite all of the whispering that was going on.

Roku's eyebrows rose at how this strange man that he heard knew of him.

His father, still furious, nodded his head.

"Yes, this is the ceremony that _you _just interrupted of my son," he said angrily, pointing at Roku. "If you wanted to watch, you should have quietly entered like a normal human being!"

Obito laughed nervously.

"Um, I'm actually here to capture him!" he casually said, as if there was nothing wrong with it.

Everyone fell silent at the boldness of the intruder, along with disbelief from the statement.

The silence was broken however when a water missile shot from the entrance, _through _Obito and directly at Roku, who didn't see it coming. Nobody was able to react in time to warn Roku, except for Naminé, who had tackled Roku to the side before the stream could hit him. However, the water stream hit her head on and it blasted her through the wall and outside in the courtyard.

"Naminé!" Roku screamed from the ground, ignoring the battle that had just begun between his father and the intruder. He ran and jumped through the hole and to outside courtyard, where he helped up Naminé who was on the ground groaning in pain.

"Naminé-chan, are you okay?" he urgently asked her, holding her close to him. She smiled and nodded at him. She had the wind knocked out of her, but she was otherwise alright.

"Well, Suigetsu was supposed to hit Roku, but I guessed he missed."

A voice sounded from above them, and they both turned to see a hooded and masked ninja, staring down at them.

"Who are you, and what do you want with Roku!" Naminé surprisingly shouted out at the intruder.

"That's none of your concern," the intruder replied. Roku then heard a rapid clicking noise and the sound of metal, and he was surprised when the intruder had a chain whip fall from one of his sleeves.

Before Roku could attack, the intruder flicked his arm and sent the bladed whip towards them, surprising Naminé with how its length continued to grow seemingly at the will of the attacker.

Naminé was able to jump away with Roku in time to avoid the quick attack, but she wasn't quick enough to avoid the kick from a new attacker that landed on her back.

Naminé was sent flying away from Roku and the other masked attacker quickly followed her. What in the world was happening?

His attention was turned back to his own attacker as he heard the familiar crackling sound of electricity. He could sense that the chain whip that the attacker had used before was now sparkling with electricity, doubling its ferocity. If he was hit once with that, he knew for sure he would be knocked out.

He jumped far backwards to where he knew there was a rock, and he hid behind it as he barely avoided the lightning whip the intruder had just attacked him with. Thinking quickly, he formed the snake seal by folding his hands together, and he then slammed his palm into the ground.

"_Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!_"

The entire area that the intruder was standing on instantly turned into a massive mud pool, catching the intruder off guard. The masked ninja quickly began to submerge in the mud, until he was completely underneath it. Then, Roku formed another seal and the mud hardened until it was solid earth again.

Roku sighed as he stood up, dusting himself off. He suddenly remembered that Naminé was in trouble, and he was about to dash off to help her when a blinding light filled his eyes and he fell over to the ground gasping.

For several seconds, his mind was filled with the blinding light, until it was suddenly darkness again.

Except now, he could see everything with a new clarity. He had activated his Kurokugan.

He could see the blue outlines off all the member of the Korochi, fighting with the orange masked man. He could see the rest of the village if he tried hard enough. He tried searching the earth for the vibrations of Naminé, and surely enough, he saw he fighting with the other intruder not too far away. He was able to tell from his new eyes that the other fighter was a female. However, he could also see the outline of the attacker who he had just defeated, and he was shocked to find out that he was alive.

He turned his head in shock to look at the attacker who he had just buried underground. Sure enough, the one who he had just buried in the swamp was still there! That means that there were two of them!

His ideas changed when the new attacker connected his chakra strings to the one below the earth, pulling him quickly up, before dismissing him in a cloud of smoke. That must mean-

"Kugutsu," Koutetsu replied for him. "It's a wonderful art. But, now that you can see my chakra, it won't be as affective."

The intruder pulled out his whip again and slashed it forward. But this time, Roku could see it coming and he merely moved his body to the side slightly as he let the whip pass him. He could see every movement coming! He had perfect 360 degree vision!

Koutetsu frowned when he realized that his opponent could now see his every movement. His power had rapidly increased in a matter of seconds, and he wasn't weak before. This was going to be an actual challenge.

Koutetsu was surprised however when the earth clone he had been talking to dispersed into a pile of mud.

"Kuso! He must have left to help his friend while he distracted me with his clone!"

With that, Koutetsu quickly dashed after to where Karin was fighting Naminé.

Roku was surprised to find out that Naminé was holding her own against Karin. She had her wings activated, and she was flying in the air, letting missiles of arrows fly down to the agitated Karin. However, the arrows from Naminé's bow weren't ordinary arrows. She could manipulate their nature to her will. So instead of regular arrows landing in the, arrows consumed in fire began exploding around the elusive Karin.

And just as Karin got used to that, Naminé would switch her arrows to produce ice, and then lightning, and so on. A volley of elements rapidly flew at Karin, and she was slowly overwhelmed.

Karin was about to use her own Genjutsu to help herself when she felt two arms grab her legs. Before she knew it, she was pulled into the earth, with only her head above the ground.

Roku then emerged from the ground next to her, looking up with worry at Naminé. His angel friend flew down to him, smiling when she realized that the fighting was over.

"Are you okay, Naminé?" Roku asked her, both of them breathing heavily. She smiled at him and nodded her head. He was about to tell her that they should go back and help his clan fight off the intruders, or alert the Raikage, when an idea came to his head.

He could finally see Naminé, after all this time!

He deactivated his Kurokugan, and opened his real eyes, squinting with all of the bright light that was coming in. After several moments of rubbing his eyes, he was actually able to see the grass on the ground, as well as his own feet. He then looked in front of him, at the feet of Naminé. His eyes slowly traveled up her body, appreciating every detail that he saw in her, until he finally reached her face, which took his breath away.

Staring back at him was the most beautiful pair of sparkling eyes that he had ever seen before! They were so blue, that he felt like he was staring at the very skies above him! And the rest of her face!

She was beautiful...no, she was heavenly!

Her blonde hair, and her happily smile...he couldn't help but smile at the small blush that was growing on her cheeks from her being stared at.

"Naminé-chan," he whispered to her, looking her deep in the eyes. "You're gorgeous!"

Naminé's blush deepened as she had to look away from his deep gaze.

"R-Roku-kun," she stuttered back, unsure of what she should say.

Their special moment together was quickly ruined as Koutetsu appeared next to Roku, kicking him hard in the side, causing him to fly away into a nearby tree.

"Roku!" Naminé screamed in worry, trying to see if he was okay from the hit. She didn't think that the attacker was still in front of her, and she let her guard down for a moment.

Utilizing his opportunity, Koutetsu kicked her hard in the face, or at least he attempted to. His aim was a little low, and he ended up connecting with her neck, causing her to stumble backwards to the ground, coughing up blood.

Roku screamed in fury as he saw this happening with his eyes. He was about to get up when a large explosion erupted from the main Korochi building. Shortly after, the original attacker who was wearing an orange mask appeared in front of everyone.

"Everyone, we have to get out of here!" he shouted, motioning to his students. Koutetsu was currently helping Karin out of the ground. "The Raikage is here!"

Obito grabbed on to all of his students, and his disappeared in a vortex seconds before the Raikage appeared in the courtyard. Roku tried getting up, but he ended up blacking out from his hit against the tree before he could go and help his friend. His newly granted vision slowly began fading away from him as he fell into unconsciousness.

_Next Day, Hospital_

When Roku had awakened in a hospital bed, he immediately cursed to himself as he ran out of the room, looking for a nurse to tell him where Naminé was.

It was all _his_ fault! He shouldn't have deactivated his Kurokugan just to see Naminé! If he had kept it on, then he would have seen the attacker sneaking up on them. And then...and then...

He could only pray that Naminé wasn't severely injured.

Despite the nurses will to have him remain in his room, Roku activated his Kurokugan to see where Naminé was staying. He sighed in relief when he saw that she still had a pulse and that her chakra system was still flowing properly.

He dashed up to her room, threw open the door, and ran to the side of her bed, kneeling down so that he was on level with her.

Upon his rather loud entrance, her eyes slowly opened, and she smiled weakly at him.

"Naminé-chan," Roku said with tears forming in his eyes. He hugged her happily as he continued to talk with her. "I was so worried that you weren't going to be alright! How do you feel?" he asked her, wondering how she was doing.

He frowned when he didn't hear a response from her, and he sat up on her bed to look in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked her now, holding her hands lightly. All he got in return was a sad smile and silence.

"Naminé was really hurt badly in the fight," a doctor said as he quietly entered the room. Roku looked up to the doctor with worry in his new eyes.

"What do you mean?" he asked him rather loudly. "How badly was she hurt!"

The doctor sighed as he hated being the one to give bad news.

"Her vocal cords were damaged in when she was hit in the neck, and they are no longer able to come together and vibrate. She has aphonia...she's mute, and she will be for the rest of her life."

Roku looked down at his best friend in horror as he received another sad smile from her.

_Kiri_

"Wave Country, huh."

Itachi nodded as he relayed the information to his partner, Sub-Zero.

"Yes. My sources informed me that Zabuza is currently in Wave Country, though I don't know why. It would be best if we move out quickly, before he is able to relocate again."

Sub-Zero nodded, agreeing with his partner.

"Very well, let's go."

_End_

Thanks for reading this chapter! It's dedicated to Roku and his time in Kumo, as I wanted to bring him into the upcoming Chunin Exams, along with Naminé.

The plot will be moving along with next chapter when I start the Wave Arc. Please review on how you think this chapter went! Thank you for all who review, put this story in their favorites or alert list, or add me as their favorite author!

Power Levels:

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **

Kage: **500+**

Characters:

Hinata: **165**

Sasuke: **170 **

Naruto: **180**

Koutetsu: **240**

Roku: **200**

Anotamous: I didn't forget about the power of Susanoo, so don't worry, it will be added in the story. After seeing Sasuke's version of Susanoo in the manga, I've decided to save it for later and add my own personal twists to it.

Whispers12: thanks for the review. There won't be an Omake this chapter, but hopefully I will have one for the next.

Aki6: I'm excited for the Chunin Exams as well. Also, we'll see about Haku hopefully in the next chapter.

xxlil-laurenxx: More of what? Chapters? Yes.

cruel vamp: What's edited?

Lightblade77: Thank you a lot for the review. I try my best to make this storyline a good one!

RasenShuriken92: Thanks! I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

kin-kinna: Nice indeed.

Narutoluvr9: Haha, thanks. I hope you enjoyed this update.

nova flame dragon: Jonin are well rounded elite ninja, and they can be extremely powerful. After all, Minato was a Jonin while he was still most likely Kage level. Just because someone is a Jonin doesn't make them weaker than the Anbu, and the same goes for the Anbu. There are certain Anbu specialist, like Anko or the torture guy (can't think of his name off the top of my head) who are not strictly combat specialist, so they may not be as powerful as some Jonin. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks again!

-williams5505


	13. Journey to the Land of Waves

Let's Begin!

The Second Born

Chapter 13: Journey to the Land of Waves

* * *

_Training Grounds_

Naruto nodded to himself in satisfaction as he watched his hundreds of clones going through their training. He had no idea that this type of training would get him so powerful, so quickly! He was learning so many different techniques, and he was improving on the ones that he already knew. It had only been a week, but he felt that he had spent months training!

His Commanders, or Rinnegan Clones, would supervise the clones training, and they would relay important information to Naruto, or Naruto could send requests to them. It was also really cool to be able to see through the eyes of his different commanders. The possibilities of the shadow clones were limitless!

But today was different for him. Instead of having his clones separate to work on different subjects such as Kenjutsu, or Taijutsu, he was having all of his hundred clones working on the same technique.

Shinra Tensei.

He wanted to learn his brother's signature technique so much! He couldn't wait until he could just push his hand at someone and send them flying away, or destroy an entire building with the swing of his arm!

But of course, he didn't start off by trying to do such things. He was reading the scroll that contained the techniques of the Namikaze, and it instructed him to learn Bansho Tenin before he learned Shinra Tensei.

The first activity was strenuous. He was instructed to form the necessary hand-seals, and make a pebble that he was holding in his hand levitate in the air. It was _not_ as easy as it seemed.

Each clone formed the hand-seals, and they held their hands out trying to make the pebbles that they were holding levitate in the air. After thirty minutes, not even one of the hundred clones was able to succeed in raising the small rock even a little bit off of their palms.

But Naruto was determined. He spent nearly four hours with his clones doing this same activity, hoping that eventually he, or one of his clones, would be able to lift up the stone.

It was getting late in the evening, and he was about to give up on the exercise for the day, when he heard a cry of joy from one of his clones.

"I did it!" the clone called out, now standing up and jumping around. "I made the pebble levitate for a second!"

The Rinnegan Clones nodded and they dismissed the successful clone, allowing Naruto to receive the information. Slowly, all of the other clones began dismissing too, until Naruto was alone.

Using the information that he had just acquired, he took his own pebble and formed the hand-seals. When he was done, he placed the pebble on his palm, and attempted to raise it in the air… Surely enough, after several seconds of concentrating, the pebble rose in the air! It hovered above his palm for a second, before Naruto lost his concentration and it fell back to his hand. He did it!

Smirking to himself, Naruto walked back to his home, satisfied that he had accomplished the first part of learning Shinra Tensei.

* * *

_Unknown Location_

He was…unstoppable. A force of destruction…there would be no defeat for him. He had truly become more than human…he was a god.

"I have completed in managing to assign each of my Rinnegan Clones a permanent ability. I am no longer but one ninja, I am many. I have become a god," Pain said, turning to his love, Konan. "And you…you have become my angel."

This comment caused Konan to blush, proud of herself for accomplishing such a feat. She had grown much more powerful during her time in the origination, though she was still no match for Nagato. He had taken his free time to train her, which she greatly appreciated. She valued every second that she spent with her boyfriend, and she was happy that he cared about her as much as he did.

"Now, let us spar," Pain commanded. Forming one seal, several clouds of smoke appeared around him. When the clouds died out, five other beings came into sight, all with the same face. "The Six Paths of Pain, in full attendance."

Konan looked at each Pain with worry on her face.

"Don't worry, I won't go all out on you," Nagato reassured her, "but you need to be ready to face more than one powerful opponent at a time."

Konan nodded, and prepared herself in her ninja stance.

"_Ninja Art: Dance of the Shikigami!_"

Suddenly, sheets of paper began to peel off of Konan's skin, until her entire body was covered in paper. Slowly, her feet began to disappear and her lower legs began to turn into paper, so that it seemed that she was levitating in the air. Then, paper began sprouting from her back, forming large wings behind her. Nagato couldn't help but inwardly smile at his girlfriend.

Then, the six Pains began to organize themselves. The original orange-haired Pain stood in the middle. Behind him was the blue-haired and worried looking Pain. In front of him was the yellow-haired Pain, who was smirking proudly to himself. The brown haired Pain was standing next to the yellow haired one, without any emotion on his face. And then, in front of the yellow-haired Pain were the red-haired one and the white haired one, frowning and smiling respectively.

The training area that they were currently in was very large. It was actually a roof of the building. There was nothing above them but sky, and the perimeter of the area was immense.

Before Pain could attack, Konan flew high into the air with one swing of her wings, and pointed her wings down toward the group.

"_Ninja Art: Paper Shuriken!_"

Thousands of square paper shuriken erupted from her wings, coming down at Pain at insane speeds. However, before they could reach them, the red-haired Pain held out his hand, and a large stream of fire erupted from it. The two forces hit, and neither gained leverage, both equal in power.

The white haired Pain smiled next to the fire producing Pain.

"Hah! This is kinda funny! Is this the strongest fire you can make?!" he mocked playfully, causing the red-haired one to frown and turn to him while he was still using his fire.

"No. This was the quickest attack I could make in order to stop hers. Why don't you stop playing around and help me!"

The white-haired Pain grinned and nodded.

"Alright, here I go!"

He slapped his palms together, and a large pulse of wind appeared in front of him. The wind from his attack combined with the fire from the other attack, making an even larger fire which quickly overcame Konan's shuriken paper. Konan was forced to fly to the side to avoid being burned to a crisp. She frowned as the fire died down, and the Pains hadn't even moved a spot.

_He's put his two most offensive clones in front…and they're both fire and wind, so they can combine their attacks to create maximum damage. Not only that, but my paper is weak against fire, so it would be best if I took out the fire Pain first…_

She flew down at the speed of a shunshin, until she was in front of the red headed Pain. She thrust her palm forward, and a spear of crystal erupted from her hand…

But right before she could pierce through Pain, his eyes widened and he moved his head at the last moment. Before she could attack again, the white haired Pain appeared behind her and pulled his leg back to kick her.

When he connected, he was surprised to find out that Konan quickly dispersed into paper, with hundreds of tiny sheets now falling to the ground.

"_Ninja Art: Paper Tornado!_"

The paper that had been her clone immediately began to fly in circular directions, cutting through anything it came in contact. The Pains were forced to scatter to avoid the quickness of the attack, which is just what Konan had wanted. Once the red-haired Pain jumped away, she flew toward him, and engaged him in taijutsu.

She was amazed at how good and efficient the clone was at hand-to-hand fighting. After several moments, she was unable to land a single blow. But before she could think of a new strategy, the white haired Pain appeared next to the red one. They gave each other a nod, and they formed the exact same hand-seals together. Then, the red haired Pain and the white haired Pain held their hands out toward next to each other, pointing at Konan. Together, they shouted out to her,

"_Blaze Style: Inferno!_"

A white flame erupted from their hands, and it rapidly flew toward Konan, whose eyes were wide with shock. If that flame even went _near_ her, she was a goner. Nagato had told her of his Rinnegan's ability to combine the elements, which created a more powerful jutsu than either individual element could make. When the wind and fire Pain's synchronized their attacks and combined their chakras, they formed the blaze technique, which was a white fire that was equal in power to Amaterasu.

Konan knew that putting up any sort of shield in front of her would be useless, so she flew as high into the air as she could, trying to avoid the flames. When the flames died out and she was alone in the air, she thought that she would have a moment of peace to herself. However, she was surprised when the white-haired Pain flew up next to her, manipulating the very air around him, and held out his palms to her.

His palms grew blue with chakra swirling around him, and for a moment Konan thought that he was going to form the Rasengan. She, however, was greatly shocked when two blue chakra lasers, with the circumference of his palms, flew directly at her, not even giving her a moment to dodge.

_______

The original Nagato frowned as he looked up to the sky. It had been minutes since he sent his white-haired Pain to go and attack Konan. Surely he would have been able to knock her down by now…

He was about to mentally go into his clone's mind and look through his vision, when he saw a figure falling through the air. It wasn't until it was too late before Pain recognized it as his own clone.

The white-haired Pain hit the ground hard, causing a cloud of smoke to rise around him. Surely, from that fall, there was no way that his clone had survived. Pain's frown deepened when he realized that Konan had managed to kill one of his clones.

Konan flew down from the sky at a rapid pace, directly toward the Pain with red hair. She figured out the white haired Pain. Nagato had told her that aside from their elements, each Pain had a unique ability that he had given them. Apparently, the white-haired one could create powerful beams of chakra from his palms, as well as a Rasengan. He could also hold the lasers and use them as long swords, and he almost cut through her on several occasions. But, she wasn't considered Nagato's Angel for nothing.

"_Crystal Release: Giant Hexagonal Shuriken!_"

Konan created a large, snowflake like shuriken, and slung it at the red-headed Pain. Like she expected, he was forced to dodge the attack by jumping sideways.

Thinking quickly, Konan formed even more seals.

"_Crystal Release: Crystal Needles!_"

The area that the Pain was about to land on erupted with large crystal spikes; sharp enough that it would kill him if he landed on them. For a moment, Konan had thought that she had him, but she was surprised when the Pain's feet erupted with fire as they turned into rockets, propelling him in the air. While he was floating in the air, he held his first towards her, and they blasted off of his arms, and headed towards her with insane speeds. Konan was now forced to jump away, and levitate in the air as well.

_So this clone's power is the ability to use his body parts as weapons. He really does make a great attack force along with the white haired Pain…_

The red-haired Pain dashed towards her, and began attacking her now that his fist had returned back to his arms like magnets. His fists were also ignited in flame, so Konan knew that if she was hit she would be severally damaged.

Trying to end everything quickly, Konan grabbed the wrist of the Pain while he was trying to punch her. With her other hand, she quickly formed several one handed seals, and called out,

"_Crystal Release: Jade Crystal Prison!_"

Quickly, before the Pain could move, a crystal grew from beneath him, completely incasing him, causing him to be frozen in place. Usually, the person would disintegrate after the crystal would be destroyed, unless the person covered their body with chakra, which she knew Pain did at the last moment. She then formed a blade out of crystal and shoved it through the prison, causing it to shatter while she completely pierced through the Pain.

The clone coughed up blood before it fell over and died.

Two down, four to go.

"…Good. You've managed to take out my attack force. Regardless that they weren't going full out, it is still an impressive feat," Nagato commented, still standing behind the yellow-haired clone and the brown-haired one. "Now, you will face the second wave."

The yellow-haired Pain smirked as he formed a seal, and he yelled out,

"_Summoning Jutsu!_"

Konan was speechless as a gigantic _rhino _appeared in front of the yellowed haired one.

"W-Where did you get such a summon?!" she asked Nagato when she was able to regain her breath.

Nagato smiled at her.

"I sent this clone here on a journey to sign as many contracts as he could. I can now summon the boss animals of many different…rare species."

Konan gulped as the rhino roared and charged at her, leaving her nothing to do but defend herself.

_______

Konan was now kneeling down, panting as she had spent the majority of her chakra. She had defeated the rhino summoning, as well as the ram, and the chameleon. But every time she would try and attack, the brown haired one would absorb the attacks! Also, Nagato would send out force attacks every now and then to keep her off balance.

Pain really was unstoppable. She knew she wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as she did if he decided to go full out on her. She wouldn't have made it past is front attacking force of the white haired and red haired Pains! Even if she somehow managed to, his defensive and offensive second wave was impenetrable! But now, because he was going easy on her so that she could test her abilities, it was just her, Nagato, and the blue-haired Pain who stood behind him. The yellow and brown haired clones where incased in giant crystals, as well as the chameleon summoning that she had trapped them in. Eventually though, the prison broke, and the summoning disappeared, leaving the two clones to fall into unconsciousness.

Nagato smiled at Konan as he looked at her with his orange-tinted Rinnegan eyes. For some reason, this caused her to be annoyed. She was panting with exhaustion, ready to fall over, and he wasn't even breathing hard! He had barely moved!!

"You've done well, Konan-chan," he complimented, walking toward her. "This spar is over. You've showed me how powerful you really are. I'm sure Itachi would be proud of you as well."

She smiled tiredly at him, walking to him and giving him a hug.

"Ya, and I almost got you too! Sorry about killing your clones, but I just wanted to show you how strong I was. And if you wouldn't have stopped the match, I might have gotten a good hit or two in on you!" she bragged, laughing into him. When she noticed that he was smiling too, she bent back to look at him. "Hey, what's so funny?" she asked, noting that he was also chuckling. He merely pointed behind her, which caused her to turn and look at what he was pointing at.

She gasped at what she saw. Standing behind them were the five clones, standing upwards in perfect condition. Each one was smiling, smirking, frowning, being emotionless, or looking slightly worried, based on their personality.

"B-B-B-But, h-how?!" Konan stuttered out, looking back at the original.

The clones dispersed, leaving the two to themselves.

"It's merely the power of my last clone," Nagato commented, as if it was nothing. "…You weren't even _close_ to beating me."

The power of the elements…

The power of chakra, body control, summoning, ultimate defense, force, and resurrection…

He had an attack force, a defensive and offensive force, and just in case, he had a clone stay in back to resurrect any fallen clones…

Amazing.

* * *

_Konoha_

Team 7 stood in front of the Hokage's desk, the majority of them with unhappy looks on their faces. Earlier that morning, Sarutobi had assigned them another D-ranked mission, which involved cleaning the gutters of some old guy's house. Needless to say, it took them about fifteen minutes to do it with the help of Naruto's clones, including the five minutes it took to get there, and the five minutes it took to get back.

And still, Sarutobi was surprised that they had made it back so quickly. They were elite Genin, as they considered themselves! They shouldn't be cleaning anything! They should be fighting…something!

Hinata was probably the only one content with the easy missions, solely because it meant that she got to spend more time with her two best friends. She would always have a small smile on her face as she watched the masked men on her team complain, joke around, and read dirty books, respectively.

Kakashi had sensed the tension and distress on his team, and he had previously warned them not to speak of their aggravation to the Hokage. However, he too was becoming fed up the short and pointless missions. Nowadays, they completed at least 4 D-ranked missions in a day, which was apparently putting them on a record streak for Konoha. However, each mission would be done in about a half an hour. He never had time to get out his book and have a nice long re-reading of his favorite porno….check that, _fine literature_. He longed for the open roads, where it would take them _days_ to even get to the mission's place, and he would read his books, and be lazy, and jab at Hinata's shyness, and tempt Sasuke's arrogance, and play with Naruto's ignorance…

"Um, let me see here," Sarutobi said aloud as he flipped through several of the missions that he had in front of them. Surprisingly, most of them were already being carried out, and he had nothing to give them…this was the perfect opportunity! With all of the missions that Team 7 was completing, he was finally free to carry on with his _evil _plan!

"Ahem," he cleared his throat, now pulling out a card from his drawer and flipping it around in his hand. He had always planned this one out! "I want you to go to this address," he commented, handing Kakashi the card, giddy with excitement. "There is an old man who lives there, and he is currently out of town. He has already paid me the correct amount of money, and he wishes for his certain chores to get done before he returns," he said, trying to hide his glee.

Kakashi looked at the list and frowned under his mask. Naruto and Sasuke did the same when they tried to look at it as well. The card had a list of chores underneath the address that it listed.

_Mow the lawn_

_Rake the leaves_

_Clean out the gutters_

_Trim the hedges_

_Pull out the weeds_

_Water the garden_

_Turn over the soil…_

This list went on for a while and Kakashi was about to groan when he noticed something familiar about the address.

"Hokage-sama," he said, politely handing back the well designed card to Sarutobi, "as much as my team would love to clean up _your_ yard, I think that we are ready for more," he said, smirking when he realized the look of shock on Sarutobi's face when his 'evil plan' was discovered.

The Hokage's face fell when he realized that Kakashi was actually right. Damn! He was so close too! Maybe he could get the next team that came in to do his entire house cleaning for him…

"…I guess you're right," the Hokage admitted. He looked through the various C-ranked missions, until he noticed the most recent one. "There is a bridge builder who stopped in today, and he requested for team to escort him back to his village tomorrow morning. Your team will have that mission, along with Team 11, who also have been aching for a higher mission. You can all meet him outside the village tomorrow at nine. Kakashi will be able to give you the further details of the mission."

Team 7 saluted the Hokage and left his office, excited for the next day's mission.

* * *

_Later_

"Who's Team 11?"

Naruto threw the question up as he and his two teammates were returning home. Hinata shrugged, and Sasuke hn'd at the question.

"I have no idea. Do you think that they're an older Genin team that's been around for a few years? I wouldn't like having to do a mission with a bunch of Genin Kakashi's age," Sasuke stated with Naruto nodded his head in agreement.

"M-Maybe it's Team Gai?" Hinata offered, knowing the team quite well. With their level of ability, it wasn't unseen that they would be receiving C-missions all the time.

Sasuke cringed at the mental image of Team Gai.

"We better _not _go on an extended C-ranked mission with _that _team," he hissed out. "I think that I would actually prefer to clean out the Hokage's yard!"

Naruto laughed at the comment as they reached the front of the Namikaze compound entrance.

_Who knows, maybe we will end up going with that team. We should probably ask Gaara about it; he usually knows...well…everything._

* * *

_Hyuuga Training Grounds_

Neji took a step back as he allowed himself a short break, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. He may abhor his sensei and Lee for their eccentric views and behaviors, but they were right about one thing:

The miracles of hard work.

Neji had been born a genius. He had always been the best in everything, not having to work hard to achieve it. That was, until a certain Hyuuga heiress activated her Byakugan.

Hinata…he turned and spat on the ground at the mere thought of his cousin. She had been born with better skills than even he! Her Byakugan was flawless, and it was at the same level as his, even though he worked harder than her. Her taijutsu was perfect as well; she had mixed it with her own water and snake styles in it.

There was no other way to put it; Hinata was the pride of the Hyuuga, and he had been quickly forgotten.

And he wouldn't allow it.

He was a strong believer in destiny. Hinata may have been born better than he, but if he worked harder than her, her 'legendary' Byakugan would mean little. And he _had _been training. Ever since he realized her potential, he had focused his hatred toward the main branch through his training. He usually didn't show emotion, but he _hated_ the main branch, and he _hated _Hinata.

He had once even _liked _her, enough to call her a friend. But life back then was different. He was still the strongest of the Hyuuga; he was still the pride of the clan. But ever since her true colors began to show, Neji's true hatred had emerged.

He would destroy her. He would prove to…himself, that even though Hinata was born with stronger eyes, he could overcome her. It was his fate.

* * *

_The Next Morning, Hyuuga Compound_

Hinata sighed to herself as she checked over the contents of her backpack for the fifth time. She was told by Kakashi to pack what she needed for a trip that would most likely last for over several weeks, and she didn't want to forget anything!

After all, she would _not_ be an embarrassment to her team, and she certainly wouldn't want to disappoint her father.

Her father…

It was no surprised that he had changed from the man he once was. It seemed like every day after her mother had passed away, he grew more and more distant, and less like the caring father that filled her childhood memories. While she understood how the pressure of being Clan Head was on him, as well as the sorrow of losing his wife, she was more worried about her younger sister Hanabi, who had grown up with a less than…emotional father.

Hiashi Hyuuga could be perfectly described as an emotionless man. While he once would have congratulated her for improving on her ninja skills as much as she had, she would now receive nothing more and the slightest nod from the head, or a warning for her not to fall back on her training.

There were many times when she wondered what she would be like if she hadn't been blessed with such a powerful Byakugan. Would her father be ashamed of her for not being strong enough? She knew for a fact that without her Byakugan, Neji would be far stronger than she would. Also, it was because of Naruto and the inspiration that he gives her that allowed her to become at her current level of strength, which she had recently discovered was not enough for her father.

He had been at first disappointed in her when she graduated from the Academy third best out of all of the students. This had certainly surprised her, as she had thought it an amazing accomplishment because of all the talent the other clan heirs possessed. It was only because she had been beat by an Uchiha and a Namikaze that he had allowed her to go…unpunished. That was the first time that she had realized that her father had truly turned into a different man.

He no longer congratulated her for learning various things, or accomplishing smaller things. He would berate her for not training harder than she already did. He would tell her that because her eyes were supposedly legendary, she should train much harder than any normal ninja. When she told him of how it was Naruto's destiny to save the world, he had at first snarled and refused to believe that such a fate belonged to a Jinchuuriki. But when he had come to accept that she would eventually be a part of it, he made her train harder, and he constantly rebuked her for any mistakes that she made.

To put it in clear thoughts, any sort of error that she made was absolutely unacceptable. She simply had too powerful of eyes to do such a thing. He would constantly remind her of how she had yet to even activate her eyes, unlike her teammates, and how it was she would was the only one knocked out when the Cloud shinobi had attempted to kidnap her. This hurt her emotionally more than many other things, as that day had been particularly hard for her. He reminded her of how it was Sasuke and Naruto who took out the infiltrators and how she had been nothing more than a burden.

Burden…that was another word that he had been using with increasing occurrence. He warned her that should she ever be a burden, she would instantly disgrace the entire name of the Hyuuga. In fact, when she told him that she would be going on a C-ranked mission with her team, his first response was to warn her not to be a burden to her team.

Before, during her golden memories, as Hinata continued to call them, her father would tell her to do her best and that he knew she would be great at whatever should was doing at the time. Her mother would even tell that it didn't matter whether or not she trained well, or did not get it right at first. That had always made her feel much better. But now…he would only warn for her not to fail.

His most recent…comment to her that had struck her down emotionally had been regarding her cousin, Neji. He had spent much more time training with the child of his brother than her. He would brag about how powerful he was getting, without the assistance of a 'legendary eye' as well as the restrictions that his Cage Seal had on him. Hinata had been devastated to hear her father comment that Neji would have been better off having the legendary Byakugan. Hinata had then truly begun to question her own worth. Her own father had claimed that he would have rather given birth to Neji, and that he wished for him to have her eyes! How was she even supposed to respond to such a comment?!

She shook her head and shuddered as she zipped up her backpack and threw it around her back. It was _very_ early in the morning, and she really had no reason to get up at such an hour, but she felt that the quicker she got out of compound, the better. She mentally berated herself for even thinking such a thought, but she couldn't help but be anxious to leave her father's house and go to the Namikaze Compound, which was full of warmth and happiness.

She allowed a small smile to grow on her face as she closed her door behind her and walked down the wooden porch that surrounded every Hyuuga manor. She was planning to head over to Naruto's house extra early so that she could cook breakfast for him, as well as everybody else. _He _would actually praise her for what she did, whereas her father would merely remain silent if he ate anything Hinata prepared for him. She was beginning to wonder if her food was actually that good, or if Naruto had never eaten that good of food in the first place. Or maybe even Naruto was just naturally trying to make others feel better…he had such a strong tendency to do that, but after all, it was one of the many reasons as to why Hinata…well…_admired _him.

She had convinced herself over time that she merely admired Naruto, which was why she blushed so heavily around him. After all, to think that she _loved _him was pretty unimaginable. Naruto was just the type of person that she so desperately needed in her life, which was probably why she had thought so at first. No, Naruto was just a friend…a good friend…a _really_ good friend, who she wouldn't mind spending the rest of her life with, and travel around to world with him to help him master the elements and defeat the Evil King…

She blushed when she thought of spending such a large amount of time with Naruto. Maybe after all those years…their friendship could blossom into something more, and he would finally recognize her as more than his friend. Maybe, they could end up getting married, and they would live happily ever after as the saviors of the world. Sasuke would be the best man of the wedding, and Kairi would be her bridesmaid, and Sai would paint another picture of Hinata and Naruto together, and Gaara would be their pianist…

She had to cut her fall short before she dove deep into her lake of dreams and what she wished would become. She found herself doing this more often, at least now that she was on Naruto's team, and now that she found out that her destiny was intertwined with Naruto's. But would Naruto even like her then? Probably not…especially if she didn't change. But, she would change, and she was sure of it! She wouldn't be the shy little nervous girl that she was at the moment. She would be strong willed, just like Naruto, and she would be all grown up and beautiful…She would be able to speak up to anyone, and-

"Might I ask you what you are doing, Hinata-sama?" a voice called out from in front of her, causing her to completely stop in her tracks. She had to resist the urge to squeal and cower in fear from the form of her cousin who appeared to be towering over her, though he couldn't possibly be that much taller than her.

"N-N-Neji!" she quietly stuttered out, mentally cursing herself for her inability to speak clearly to her cousin. And to think she was just thinking about how she was going to be strong willed someday…

The stoic Hyuuga merely raised an eyebrow in annoyance as he waited for the stuttering buffoon to answer his original question.

"A-Ano," Hinata continued, finding it extremely difficult to look into the eyes of her cousin, "I'm l-leaving early to go on my mission!" she finally managed to spit out.

Neji look gave her a knowing look, almost as if he was saying 'I know you're headed straight to Naruto'.

"Oh, and what time are you supposed to meet with your team?" he asked rather innocently, his voice leaking with power that seemed to intimidate her.

Hinata cursed herself again as she realized that she had forgotten to check the time before she left her room. If she made up a time, she could be absolutely off and make a fool of herself.

"I just find it rather unusual that you would be leaving for a mission at _five _in the morning," Neji continued for her, causing her to wince in discomfort. He then walked by her, showing her that he had no true interest in the conversation. "Just don't embarrass our family any more than you already have, or Hiashi-sama will be disappointed and take out his frustration on my training," he called out without even turning around. "Don't be a _burden._" He finished, putting just enough emphasis on the last word to make inHinatahffffHinata flinch once more.

The Hyuuga heiress sighed when her cousin finally turned the corner to her house, going out of sight. It seemed that her father wasn't the only one who had changed for the worse. Neji used to be nice to her…she was beginning to wonder if her eyes becoming more of a curse than a blessing.

* * *

_Naruto's House_

Naruto tossed and turned in his bed, trying to fall back to sleep, knowing that it would be impossible. He hated waking up earlier than he had to, and today was no exception. However, just as he was about to think bad of the situation, a certain scent entered his nose. He deeply inhaled, and he recognized the smell of food enter through his nostrils.

He now smiled to himself as he allowed the smell of food to take over his thoughts. It actually reminded him of his childhood. He thought back to the days were he would wake up and Konan would be in the kitchen with Nagato, making breakfast. Konan would always cook everything, and his brother would at best end up making the tea. Nagato was no cook, and Konan nearly insisted that Naruto should be raised with a proper breakfast every morning.

He would run downstairs and say 'good morning' to his brother and Konan, and maybe even Itachi if he had decided to drop by. He would wake up at the perfect time, and the food would be ready for him…

Naruto now jumped up out of bed, only in his under-armor clothing and sleeping pants. He changed quickly into his usual tunic, and he looked around his room, checking it over once more. He smiled when he came across the painting that was held up by his bed. It was a birthday present that he had received from Sai a while back, and he still kept it up in his room. Surprisingly enough, Sai had accurately painted a picture of him and Hinata, except they were….well, kissing. Naruto was clueless as to why Sai would paint such a painting, but it was well done, and Naruto could tell that Sai had spent a lot of time on it, so he kept it in his room. Besides, it made him smile every time he looked at it, and it certainly made Hinata blush for an unknown reason every time she came to his room.

Sighing happily, Naruto turned around and headed downstairs, curious as to where the smell was coming from. He started to hear some noises, which made him wonder if everyone was already up. He was led to the kitchen, which he was surprised to find was full of people.

He rubbed his eyes as he saw Hinata and Kairi cooking breakfast, and Gaara sitting in one of the chairs, playing with his sand on the table. Hinata appeared to be explaining to Kairi how long it usually took to steam the rice.

"Um…good morning everyone!" Naruto greeted out, causing the attention of everyone to turn to him.

Hinata gasped and turned around the quickest, almost dropping the spatula that she had been holding, which caused her to blush and pick it up. She was wearing her usual tank top outfit, with the only difference being the apron which she wore over it.

"A-Ah, N-Naruto-kun!" she stumbled out, fidgeting with herself and looking away. Kairi, who was wearing an apron as well smiled when she saw the look of confusion on Naruto's face.

"Hey, Naruto-kun!" she greeted, waving at him. "Gaara saw Hinata standing outside the compound this morning, so he invited her in. She's teaching me how to cook a bunch of different things!" Kairi explained, throwing out her arms in excitement. "After all, I have to be able to cook better for Gaara-kun, and Hinata's the best!"

Naruto nodded at the explanation, not really concerned with it. Hinata sighed in relief. She had been worried if Naruto would be somewhat mad at her for coming to his house uninvited.

"It's okay," Naruto said, sensing her relief. "You're always welcome to come over if you need to!" Naruto said, causing the shy girl to blush in small embarrassment. He could perfectly picture her fidgeting outside the compound, wondering if she was allowed to enter or not.

His attention was quickly taken away by the food being cooked on the stove.

"I'll go get Sasuke," Gaara said randomly, standing up and leaving the kitchen. Naruto then sat down at their large table, grabbing hold of his chopsticks, eager for whatever Hinata was cooking. Kairi then brought over a bunch of bowls of soup, which appeared to be filled with miso soup. She set them down in front of each person's placemat, and she went back to fill everyone's cup up with tea. Hinata meanwhile set out plates filled with rice and eggs in front of everyone's place mat before she sat down next to Naruto, quietly. She allowed herself a smile as Naruto began making noises and ogled his eyes at the rather simple food in front him.

When everyone was present for breakfast, they chanted 'Itadakimasu' and they began to dig. The rather traditional breakfast was quite tasty, and they all enjoyed eating it.

"So, today our team is going on a C-ranked mission!" Naruto bragged, after finishing his portion. He was proud and he imagined that Gaara would be upset about this.

Gaara, on the contrary, snorted in lack of interest.

"So? My team already went on _three _C-ranked missions, and we're going on another one today!" he said, now smirking at the look on Naruto's face. He may have not been able to see Naruto's actual face because of his mask, but he could tell just by the blonde's eyes that he was aggravated.

"We're going out to the Land of Waves," Gaara continued now that he had everyone's attention. "We're escorting a bridge builder there from any sort of bandits that may attack him on the long journey there. Actually, it's technically a collaborated mission because we're working with another team, though the Hokage told us that he hadn't decided at the time."

Naruto nodded, noting the similarities with his mission.

"Us too," he stated, "The Hokage said that we would be going on a group mission with Team 11, whoever they are, though he didn't say what our mission was."

…

"…We're Team 11," Gaara blankly said, causing Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata to stare at him incredulously.

Naruto suddenly jumped out of his chair in excitement, pumping his fist into the air.

"Yatta!" he cheered, showing off his excitement in the most obvious of ways. Everyone else managed just to smile instead. "We finally get to go on a mission together, all of us! It'll be awesome!"

* * *

_Konoha_

Team 7 stood at the front gates with Team 11 in full attendance, with the addition of Tazuna, a…rather drunk old man, as Naruto found no other way to put it. The old man mumbled to himself in what seemed to be disappointment about something or the other.

"So, now that we're all ready," Kakashi began, not needing to wonder whether or not he was the leader of the big group, "let me explain to everyone what this mission is that we are about to set off on. First of all, I hope that everyone packed enough for the duration of the trip, which will most likely be weeks."

He glanced around and nodded at the backpacks that adorned the students before him.

"Good. Let me start off by introducing this man to you. His name is Tazuna, and he is the bridge builder for the Land of Waves. We will be escorting him there when we leave."

The man mentioned swung his bottle of alcohol at the group, grumbling in annoyance.

"I can't believe that I got stuck with you…brats!" he declared, causing him to receive several rather…violent glares. "Especially that blonde brat who keeps jumping all over the place! What is this?! I asked for some body guards, not a bunch of kids on who look like they have to hold their mommy's hand when they cross the street!"

Ironically enough, there was not one member on either team that still had a mother.

Naruto might have exploded in fury, had he not already got a hang of how to control his emotions. After all, many people in the village still glare at him for being the container of the Kyuubi, as well as the brother of the rogue ninja that helped slay the Uchiha. He had learned how to shut out the insults of others and completely refrain from showing his emotions. There were many times when he imagined what it would be like for the Dark Lord, wherever he is, to eradicate all of Konoha undisturbed. Hinata had not liked that idea…

"The only competent ones look like the dark haired boy and the red haired boy," the man continued, mentioning Sasuke and Gaara. "Can I request that the other children return home to their mommies and let us get going home?"

Kakashi was proud of his students for not speaking out against the man who clearly didn't realize that his life was more and more in jeopardy with every insult he threw.

"I'll have you know that everyone before you today is considered an adult the moment they became ninja," Kakashi coolly explained, not showing much emotion on his face besides amusement, "and should you be attacked by bandits along the way, which is the reason that we're hired, only _one _of our students should be enough to handle it. If it all comes down to it, Anko-chan and myself are Jonin, the elite ninja of our village."

Tazuna didn't seem completely convinced, but he refrained from insulting the Genin any further.

"Anyway, as I was saying, it is our mission to protect Tazuna on his journey to the Wave, and guard him as he finishes up building his bridge. It should be a fairly relaxed mission with no combat involved, but it will be good experience to get out of the village," Kakashi stated, turning around so that he was facing the gates of the village. "So, let's move out!"

They were on the east trail headed in the direction toward Kiri for about two hours before Kakashi decided to take a break along the side of the road. Naruto and his team were completely fine, but Kakashi had noticed that Tazuna's steps had begun to falter. Who got drunk so early in the morning, anyway? Usually, drinking in the morning was only common for, well, alcoholics, but aside from them, adults who suffered from guild, ninja who had experienced something terrifying on a previous mission, or foolish ninja who were worried about the mission ahead of them. Kakashi personally didn't know enough about the man to make his decision yet, so it would be best to wait and analyze him more in the future.

Surely enough, Tazuna fell down beside a nearby tree and began to complain about how they were running him ragged. The rest of the energized ninja merely looked at him in disappointment.

"Hey, it's not my fault!" he waved at them, trying to fall asleep. "I didn't get any sleep last night! I bet you none of you kids have even gone a day without sleeping!"

Gaara scoffed at the comment, amused because he had never fallen asleep in his life, thanks to Okami, the wolf demon inside of him. But, instead of him speaking up, it was Naruto who mentioned this to the man.

"Hey! Gaara here had _never_ fallen asleep!" Naruto commented, always defending his friends. Now it was the bridge builders turn to scoff.

"Hah! As if! Stop bugging me with your made up crap and let me get some sleep!"

Almost instantly, the bridge builder passed out, allowing his bottle of alcohol to fall out of his hand beside him, leaving the two ninja teams to wonder what they were supposed to do.

"…Well, unless you guys have a better plan, I'm going off in the forest to train," Sasuke announced, turning and heading off into the forest. Naruto liked the plan.

"Me too. Call me if you need me!"

With that, the blonde ninja turned and went off in a different direction in the woods, with a certain pale eyed kunoichi following closely behind him. Kakashi sighed at the antics of his students as he remained at the spot with Team 11. Anko snorted at him, causing him to look at her with curiosity.

"I thought you were the one with the well disciplined team!" Anko mocked, clearly enjoying herself. "Your team just disappeared without your orders or anything!"

Kakashi shrugged, used to the behavior of his students by now. It wasn't as if he couldn't summon them at a moment's notice.

"Hm, did you day something?" he asked, pulling out his book and leaning back against a tree. Kakashi had a history of annoying the crap out of Anko; he basically had it down to an art.

The snake-Jonin snarled at him and turned around to her own team, or lack thereof.

"Everybody, we're gonna work on…"

Anko stopped speaking when she realized that there was no one behind her to order around.

* * *

_Later_

After about fifteen minutes or so, Tazuna had awoken, with one hell of a headache. The teams were called back together again and they traveled for about an hour or so with no interruption until Naruto heard something alarming from his clones.

"_Chief, we've spotted two puddles one hundred paces ahead from where you are now that are full of chakra. We think that each source of chakra has an alarmingly high amount, more so than a regular trap. Each contains the amount of chakra found in a typical Chunin. We are unsure as to what type of trap the two puddles could be, or why they are placed there."_

Naruto had thought ahead and created three Rinnegan clones to scout the area ahead of them through the trees. This way Naruto would be the first to find out if there were enemy bandits waiting ahead of them.

_Enough chakra for a Chunin?_ This concerned Naruto, to a considerable amount. This was a C-ranked mission; they weren't supposed to face any traps, only bandits that weren't even ninja! Naruto knew that it wasn't coincidence at all, as it hasn't rained in Konoha in the past month or so, and his Rinnegan clones could spot out chakra sources as well as he could.

Naruto considered telling this to his teammates, but he decided against it. After all, if there was any trouble, Kakashi would pick it up immediately and protect them. He wasn't a Jonin for nothing. Still, he nervously glanced behind him where Kakashi was trailing in the back of the group, relaxing and reading his book. Naruto activated his Rinnegan as a precaution, which caused his iris to turn gold and for several black rings to surround it.

The two groups walked by normally and passed the two puddles that sure enough existed. Naruto tensed as he waited for anything out of the ordinary, and let out a sigh of relief as Kakashi passed by the puddles and nothing happened. Perhaps his clones had been wrong! Maybe the puddles were just-

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted as two dark figures quickly erupted from the puddles, and in a blink of an eye, they had strange metal chains wrapped around Kakashi, with the chains connected to each other.

"First," they announced in dangerous low voices that seemed to be very excited. Before anyone else could move, they pulled the chain which sliced through Kakashi like warm butter.

Naruto resisted the urge to vomit as he had seen that Kakashi had been able to use a substitution jutsu before he had been trapped. He heard Hinata and Kairi behind him let out high pitched screams and he knew that they didn't see his sensei's trick. Grinding his teeth together, Naruto knew that the battle had currently turned to them as the two enemy ninja began dashing toward them. He pulled out his two katana and formed a ready stance, his own arms shaking in slight fear.

However, right before the ninja reached them, they disappeared, causing Naruto to quickly spin around. Instead of appearing behind him, they appeared behind Tazuna, preparing to cut him as well. But, before the chains could enwrap him, Anko shoved him out of the way and was cut up by the blades in his place.

"Gaara, protect the bridge builder!" Naruto screamed out, turning toward the two enemies with his swords raised. Thinking quickly, he threw one of his katana directly between the two ninja directly at their chain. Receiving the desired effect, the chain was cut by his blade and it flew back into a nearby tree, effectively pinning the ninja.

The Demon Brothers grunted in annoyance and twisted their wrists, causing their connections to their blades to fall off, freeing them. Gaara and his team fell back to the bridge builder, knowing the importance of his life was higher than the success in defeating the two enemy ninja. Kairi and Sai quickly surrounded Tazuna, who was now speechless in shock, while Gaara stood in front, his sand pouring out of his gourd.

The brothers looked around at all of the Genin before them, confused with why there were so many of them. Their speculation gave Sasuke and Hinata enough time to stand next to Naruto and form their squad. Naruto gave Sasuke a quick nod, and they began their assault with Sasuke going through several hand-seals.

"_Fire Element Art: Racing Flames!_"

A ring of fire quickly surrounded him, coming up from the ground, before it dashed forward in two lines, quickly headed toward the two enemies. The Demon Brothers were forced to jump sideways in the air to avoid such a jutsu. Since when could Genin use elemental jutsu like that?

Their separation was just what Naruto had planned for. Naruto jumped directly for the one on the left, while Hinata hesitantly dashed forward to the one on the right. While in the air, the two ninja clicked a button on their wrists which sent a volley of senbon needles headed quickly at the bridge builder. However, Gaara's sand was able to shoot up and form a shield, causing the needles to harmlessly embed themselves in it before they reached their target.

Hinata attempted to palm strike the man directly at his heart right after he shot off the needles, but he was still able to bring out his other hand to block her attack. Still, the force of her chakra was strong and it propelled him backwards a good amount before he landed, glaring down the young annoyance before him.

Hinata landed lightly on the ground as she felt her heart pounding in her ears. She hated the feeling of true battle, especially when she was fighting ninja who outranked her. Her peripheral vision began to dim until she only saw in clouded tunnel vision. She quickly activated her Byakugan to solve this, and thanked the gods for her now perfect vision.

_Don't be a burden…_

Hinata swallowed hard and dashed forward to engage the enemy in combat. She struck hard at him in different places, but she was outmatched, and he hit her to the side before she was able to land any solid blows.

Naruto was currently holding his katana in his mouth while his hands were forming the palm seal.

"_Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm!_"

The Demon brother was surprised with the second elemental jutsu but he was able to jump once more to avoid the attack. He was once again surprised when Sasuke appeared above him in the air, and slammed him into the ground forcefully with a chakra enhanced kick.

Swearing, the Demon Brother hopped up and dusted himself off. It was time to get serious and stop playing around with these little brats! He didn't even have to fight them, but after that hit, they were going to die and nobody was going to-

The particular brother looked down at his feet, wondering why they were covered in sand. Suddenly, the sand shot up and encased the rest of his body before slamming him into a nearby tree, knocking him out.

Likewise with the other brother, sand suddenly encased him before he could attack the Hyuuga again and it threw him into a nearby tree, forcefully binding him to it.

It was only then that Kakashi and Anko appeared in the clearing, both smiling and Kakashi clapping his hands in amusement.

"Good job, guys," he complimented, slowly walking over to where the conscious demon brother was contained. "I wasn't expecting you to have the face the _Demon Brothers of the Mist_ on this _C-ranked _mission, but you still went above expectations and managed to take them down. I'm proud!"

The Chunin growled at Kakashi when the masked nin came near him, eye-smiling.

"Is there anything you would like to tell me now, or would you rather wait for me to slowly extract it from you?" he asked, a little too nicely.

The Demon Brother was anything but intimidated. He said nothing, but before Kakashi could reach him he dispersed in water, causing Kakashi's eye to widen. The brother appeared next to his fallen alley, and he picked him up from the ground, slinging him over his shoulder. He glared at the group one last time before he announced,

"You caught us by surprise, just like we were hoping to catch you. We will meet again, and when we return, you will _not _be underestimated, and you will _all _die!"

Once more, the ninja dispersed into water, disappearing from sight to leave both teams of Konoha alone. After a moment of tense silent, everyone's attention immediately turned to Tazuna, who was unconsciously backing away from the group.

"Care to explain why two _Chunin_ ninja just attempted to assassinate you?" Kakashi asked, closing in on the old man.

* * *

_Nearby Forests, Evening_

Naruto sat down against the base of a tree as he prepared to execute his own training. As custom, he waved his arm, creating three Rinnegan Kage Bunshin to surround the area, so that his vision would increase and he would be forewarned if any unwanted intruders entered the area. His new training required him to be at peace, and for him not to worry if anyone was going to attack him.

The group had stopped off at an inn as they decided that they would call it quits and rest for the remainder of the day. Tazuna had explained to him his story about how he didn't have enough money to buy for a higher ranked mission, and why he needed guards in the first place.

Kakashi and Anko were not impressed, to say the least. Even after his long winded sob story, they were still set on heading back to Konoha and abort the mission.

If it wasn't for their sympathy or desire to finish the mission, the Genin would have never convinced their sensei to allow them to go through this potentially B-ranked to A-ranked mission. Tazuna had showered them with praise after Kakashi finally allowed them to continue, ironically after mocking them earlier that morning.

He shook his head and sighed as he pulled a familiar pebble out of his tunic, and held it in his open palm in front of him. He had left from the inn to go out in the forest to train alone, hoping to improve his _force _style. His progress for the Bansho Tenin was going on painfully slow, but the scroll had predicted such, saying that it would be impossible to learn it any faster unless _force _was your natural chakra element, which Naruto had never seen before in Konoha.

Before he was allowed to move on to the next technique, the scroll had told him that he was supposed to be able to levitate the pebble above his palm without the use of any hand-seals. This meant that he had to master the specific flow of chakra that was supposed to go through his body without hand-seals to help him mold the chakra in the right way, which was easier said than done. Needless to say, Naruto believed that he had that step mastered, but he tried it out a final time to prove it to himself.

Staring down at the pebble with his blue eyes, Naruto pushed the correct form of chakra out of his body, focusing on the pebble. While he had originally thought that he needed to have his Rinnegan activated to perform this jutsu, he was surprised to find out that it wasn't required, the proof being that his shadow clone had managed to use the jutsu without a Rinnegan. Naruto assumed that having the Rinnegan activated was required for a normal Namikaze, but he was…well, different. He guessed that having his legendary body granted him to have all six of the chakra natures without the need of his Rinnegan. Sure, the Rinnegan helped speed up the process of training to an incredible amount, but the scroll had instructed that this phase of training should be done without the assistance of the legendary eye.

Just as Naruto commanded, the pebble in his hand floated in the air, about a foot and a half above his palm. Naruto allowed himself to smile at the accomplishment and he canceled the technique, allowing the pebble to fall down to his hand. He quickly pulled out the scroll from his backpack, and he rolled it out further, seeing what it had to say next.

_Once you are able to effortlessly levitate the pebble, it is time to test your range and your control. Start by levitating the rock up and down in your hand repeatedly._

Naruto returned his attention to the pebble and attempted just that. He caused the pebble to float in the air again, and then back down to just above his palm. The movements of the rock were rather jerky at first, but after a while, Naruto was able to get the motion down easily.

"_Chief, Hinata is headed your way_."

Naruto frowned at the message he received from one of his Rinnegan clones. Why was Hinata coming for him? Was it already time for him to have to return?

He decided to do nothing about it and he allowed for the girl to approach him.

Hinata sighed when she saw Naruto sitting down against the base of a tree. She hid behind her own tree as she hoped to collect her thoughts for a moment before confronting the blonde. Maybe it was a bad idea after all, and she should head out-

"You can come out now, Hinata-chan," Naruto called out, causing her to flinch and sharply inhale. Taking a deep breath to clam her nerves, she walked over to him, and sat down against a nearby tree which was close to Naruto.

Naruto looked at the next instruction that the scroll provided for him.

_Begin to test your range. For this part, your Rinnegan should be activated. You will notice that you can see the outline of your chakra surrounding the pebble with your enhanced vision. When you move your chakra up or down, the rock is carried with it, which is why you can move it at all. Next, try and push the rock out away from you, and levitate it ten meters from where you currently are. Using your hand to guide it will help, and you will use this technique for now._

Naruto nodded, and closed his eyes, pushing chakra into them. When he opened them, his irises had turned golden with black rings surrounding them. Hinata was about to ask him what he was doing when she was shocked to find the pebble in his hand levitating in the air.

"T-That's…" she tried to say, completely hypnotized by the movement of the pebble going up and down.

"Bansho Tenin, my brother's technique," Naruto finished for her, still completely focused on the rock levitating in front of his eyes. Like the scroll instructed, he held his hand out to the rock, and began pushing it out. This part was much harder than just levitating the rock up and down, as he had to keep the pebble level in the air as well as moving it out.

Hinata's eyes followed the rock as it shakily traveled out six meters, before it fell to the ground, causing Naruto to curse in aggravation. He was about to get up when she quickly hopped up first, beating him to the pebble. Turning back to him, she tossed the pebble back to him, causing him to smile.

"Thanks. Hey, Hinata-chan, can you sit about another ten four meters back from where you are?" he asked her, grasping the pebble once more. The shy Hyuuga nodded, and stepped back a little bit, before sitting down across from Naruto. She couldn't help her cheeks from lightly flushing as she stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

Naruto nodded and made the pebble levitate once more. He held out his hand and pushed it forward once more. It was a little straighter, and it traveled the entire ten meters slowly before it was right in front of Hinata, who was holding her hands out in case it fell.

Slowly but surely, the rock traveled back to Naruto, until he snatched it out of the air. He repeated this exercise, quickly mastering it and increasing the speed of the pebbles travel. He also made it travel in different patterns, like moving up and down or side to side while he pushed it forward. Whenever he made a mistake and lost control of the pebble, Hinata would pick it up and throw it back to him.

After about fifteen minutes of this activity, Naruto allowed the pebble to drop in Hinata's lap.

"The scroll says that I have to be able to pick up the rock from ten meters," Naruto explained to her. "Hold out the pebble in your palms, okay?"

Hinata nodded and did as instructed, holding out the pebble for Naruto. The masked blonde focused his Rinnegan on the pebble ten meters in front of him, and he tried to lift it up, but to no avail. Hinata frowned to herself as Naruto continued to hold out his hand, which was now shaking slightly, but the rock in her hand remained in it. She activated her Byakugan quickly, trying to see if there was anything she could see that could help Naruto.

She was surprised to find that Naruto's eyes were glowing with a clear blue chakra, as well as his palm. However, when she looked at the rock in her hands, she saw that the chakra around it was much lighter and more spread out, so that his chakra basically covered her entire hands instead of just the pebble.

"N-Naruto-kun," she said, now looking up to him with her eyes, "try focusing your chakra harder on the pebble. Your chakra is s-spread out right now, and i-it's not strong enough to lift it."

Naruto nodded, and tried to sharpen his own eyesight so that he could see what Hinata was talking about. Sure enough, his chakra was weak around the pebble itself. Staring down at the small rock in the young Hyuuga's hands, Naruto focused more chakra into it and tried to pinpoint its exact location with his eyes. Sure enough, when his eyes were more focused on it, his chakra immediately surrounded the pebble. When he willed his chakra to lift up with his hand, sure enough, the pebble rose with it.

Hinata gasped as the rock levitated out of her own hands, floating in the air.

"I get it now!" Naruto explained when the pebble began floating up and down quickly around Hinata, causing her to turn her head back and forth to follow it. "The farther away the pebble is, the stronger I have to force my chakra around it, as well as my eyes!"

Hinata smiled somewhat sadly at his accomplishment, and quietly congratulated him when the pebble flew back over to Naruto and landed in his hands.

"G-Good job, Naruto-kun!" she called out, not sounding nearly as excited as she wished she did.

At this, Naruto deactivated his Rinnegan and looked at her with concern in his eyes.

"Are you okay, Hinata-chan?" he asked her, noticing how her eyes darted away from him when he tried looking at her. "You look kinda sad right now."

Hinata shook her head and tried to smile back at Naruto with energy. "N-No! I'm fine, really. I g-guess I'm just a little tired, that's all." Apparently her attempt to smile at him turned out to be rather pathetic, as he frowned deeper and stood up, walking over to her.

"Come on, Hinata. I've known you long enough to tell when you're hiding something," he claimed, taking a seat in the grass next to her. Suddenly, a look of worry flashed across his face.

"It wasn't something that I did, was it?" he rushed out, his mental gears rearing back in his head trying to find out if he managed to do something offensive to the Hyuuga recently.

Hinata shook her head almost violently as she tried her best to tell him that that was not what she was thinking.

"N-No!" she nearly yelled, waving her arms out in front of her rather dramatically as if it would somehow further push her already obvious point. Naruto flinched back at the quick motion, causing Hinata to turn away and flush in embarrassment. "G-Gomen, Naruto-kun, it has nothing to do with you…"

Naruto sighed in relief when he knew that whatever was causing Hinata to be down in the dumps wasn't his fault, which it tended to be in the majority of cases. Whenever Hinata would pass out, which wasn't that rare of an event, Naruto would ask whose fault it was and he would generally receive some aggravatingly knowledgeable looks, as if he was the only one who didn't know why! Most of the times Kakashi or Sasuke would respond that it _was_ his fault. Naruto may be considered painfully dense at times, but he was not unobservant. He noticed that while he didn't want to think he caused his friend to pass out on different occasions, she only would fall unconscious if he was in close proximity to her. He had guessed that she might be allergic to him, which is why her face would always turn red if he touched her. Most likely however, she just probably didn't like to be touched by him in general.

Still, Naruto had no idea how to really help his friend when she continued to slump forward, still clearly uncomfortable. Iruka should've taught psychology in his class! Then maybe Naruto would know how to deal with his own friends better. His stomach was at unease and it felt like his pants were too tight on him, causing him to have to fidget around more than he wanted to. Seeing his friend in such discomfort made him feel just as bad…but, he guessed that that was one of the penalties of having friends; he would rather himself be hurt than see one of them hurting. But either way, he probably wouldn't have paid attention to Iruka back then anyways.

Naruto sat in silence with Hinata as he had no idea what else to say besides 'hope you feel better'. Maybe he was getting better at this whole 'friendship' thing, but he guessed that asking her 'why she looked so bad' wouldn't be that intelligent of a question. Many of the times when he _did_ try and compliment her or make her feel better, worse things came out than intended. One time he attempted to compliment her outfit, but apparently what came out made her near tears. Another time he tried telling her that she was a great friend, but she quickly turned away from him like he had slapped her, and she had walked away. Hinata…was a mystery; if only he knew how to solve her!

After several minutes of sitting by each other, Hinata turned to Naruto, with a slight worry in her eyes.

"Y-You did a good job today fighting off the demon brothers," she quietly mentioned, causing Naruto's gears to once again turn rapidly inside his head.

"Ha ha, thanks," he carefully laughed, trying his best to sound modest. "You did well too!" he added, hoping to say something to make her feel better.

If anything, Naruto received the opposite reaction as Hinata quickly turned her head away from him with a noticeable tremble in her lower lib. Naruto mentally cursed. Talking with Hinata sometimes could be like walking over a clearing full of hidden land minds. Any step could cause an explosion, even if you may have walked half way across undisturbed.

"I…I wish I could've trapped the guy like you did," she eventually mumbled, not even looking at him. Naruto had to strain his ears to hear what she was trying to say.

"Huh? We couldn't even trap him! It was Gaara's sand that got him by surprise!" Naruto said, laughing the matter away. Still, his jovial approach at the conversation did nothing to brighten the Hyuuga.

"I couldn't even fight him off like you guys," she continued, unable to cheer up. "I was just hit away, and I probably would've been killed if Gaara hadn't used his sand…"

Naruto scoffed.

"That's why it's called teamwork! If Kakashi had thought that we could individually do a C-ranked mission each, then he would've let us. But we're but on teams instead so that we can work together to overcome bigger enemies!"

Hinata smiled wryly as she tried to allow Naruto's encouragement to help her. But, she knew that Naruto-kun was too nice for his own good, and he was just naturally trying to make her feel better, like he always did. What had she even done to help the team out during the fight? She had been hit aside like a ragdoll! She was lucky that the hit didn't even do more damage than it did. Her father's words of her being a burden continued to ring through head like they had been ever since they had recovered from the fight.

She had always had the feeling in the back of her mind that she would never be as strong as Sasuke and Naruto, ever since they first met each other. After all, they were both from prestigious clans with powerful bloodlines, and they seemed to be naturally talented at everything! She hadn't thought much about this until the night when the Cloud intruders struck her down, and Sasuke and Naruto unlocked their true forms of their eyes. Not only had her father berated her for being the only one to fall and not be able to fight, but she had agreed with him. And she still hasn't activated her Shinsei Byakugan! For all she knew, she could be a normal Hyuuga girl, and Neji could be the one to have it. Did she really belong with such powerful teammates…?

Hinata was jolted out of her thoughts as Naruto nudged her arm, hoping that she wouldn't be offended from the contact which she appeared to abhor.

"Come on, Hinata! We succeeded as a _team_! We should all be happy!"

"B-But, I didn't contribute nearly as much as you and Sasuke did!" she said, raising her voice a little. Why did Naruto not see it by now that she was becoming bigger dead weight every time they became stronger?

Naruto's eyes widened when he finally saw what had been upsetting Hinata so much. She thought that she wasn't good enough! Why hadn't he been able to predict that before she was forced to reveal herself?

He surprised her when he slung his arm around her shoulders, receiving the immediate reaction of a sharp gasp from Hinata and her cheeks immediately flushing red.

"Hinata, you're on Team 7, and we succeeded today! If you hadn't been there to attack the _Chunin _level ninja, then he could've overpowered me and Sasuke! And we were all surprised! I wished I could've used better attacks against him, but I didn't because I was too focused on trying to protect you guys!"

Hinata finally gained the courage to look up in his eyes, to see whether or not his words were sincere. She was stunned when she met with his deep blue orbs, which were overflowing with…_concern_…something she was derived of at her own home. Maybe…maybe Naruto was right…

"Hinata, I'm just glad that you're on my team. I really wouldn't want any other girl fighting besides me on the battlefield when it comes down to it," Naruto declared, "Honestly, you're the best teammate that I could ask for, and I'm sure Sasuke would agree. We _need _you…it wouldn't be Team 7 unless you were with us." He scoffed when he misread the look of shock on Hinata's face. "Okay, I don't really know about Sasuke, but _I _need you."

Hinata couldn't remember a time where she felt so relieved to hear such a comment. She was _needed_…that was all she ever really wanted. To be acknowledged and wanted by another…especially from Naruto-kun…he said that he _needed _her…

That last comment added with the close contact with Naruto was more than enough to knock Hinata could cold, or rather; warm, as her face turned tomato red.

_Naruto-kun…_

Naruto looked down in horror as Hinata fell over on his lap, unconscious. Why couldn't he do anything right?! Just when he thought he was going to make her better, he knocked her out again! And to think for a moment he thought he was beginning to understand Hinata…

However, his eyes caught the attention of her face that was currently on his chest. While red like usual, he noticed that she was actually _smiling_. That was…a good thing, right? Maybe she passed out because she didn't like him touching her, but she wouldn't smile unless she felt better about the whole situation…right?!?

He sighed, and he picked her up bridal style, carefully avoiding any sharp movements that make wake her. As he turned to walk back to their inn, he couldn't help but smile at the way she unconsciously grabbed on to his tunic.

* * *

_Elsewhere_

"You…failed?" the dark voice asked with a terrifyingly low and brutal force.

The Demon Brothers flinched at the way their master had spat out the last word, as if they had been punched in the gut. Zabuza was leaning back on his sofa, with his large zanbato dangling in his right hand as if it weighed nothing. Gozu, the leader of the two brothers, spoke up for them.

"Our greatest apologizes, Zabuza-sama," he said in an equally venom-filled voice as he bowed his head with his brother, "but we were surprised with the talent of the many…Genin surrounding Tazuna, as well as Kakashi of the Sharingan."

At the mention of this name, Zabuza raised an eyebrow.

"Kakashi Hatake, eh?" he said, now smiling menacingly behind his clothed mask. "He is quite powerful…perhaps I will actually have a challenge! It's been a while since I've had to fight such a powerful person…I'm looking forward to it!"

Meizu then spoke up, further informing Zabuza of the situation.

"I strongly believe that Haku will have a challenge as well," he claimed, earning an even more curious gaze from the Mist Demon. "The Genin of Kakashi are composed of an Uchiha, a Hyuuga and…a Namikaze."

Suddenly, Zabuza began laughing loudly as he apparently found the situation extremely amusing.

"Haku, do you hear that? Apparently you're going to be fighting three bloodlines stronger than your own!"

At the mention of his name, Haku appeared in the room in a swirl of icy mist.

"Zabuza-sama," she said, ignoring the previous reference to his own name, "I have…disturbing news for you."

She waited when Zabuza turned to look at her in curiosity, waiting for her to continue. Haku cleared her throat behind her Hunter-nin mask, and continued.

"My sources tell me that two ninja have found our location, and are traveling here to kill you," she stated, unable to hide the worry in her voice.

"Oh? And who might these two ninja be?" Zabuza asked, showing no concern at all. After all, it wasn't uncommon for ninja to attempt to take his life. He _had _become an enemy of Kiri by attacking the Mizukage, no matter how many reasons he had for doing it.

Haku swallowed hard, but continued anyway.

"Itachi Uchiha and a ninja named Sub-Zero from the Akatsuki."

Zabuza froze in place for several moments, before he was able to gain his composure again. A long while ago, he had received an invitation from a strange man wearing an orange mask to join an S-ranked organization named Akatsuki. Zabuza declined because his only loyalties were with the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and after they disbanded, he would only go solo, with the assistance of those who followed him. The strange man had warned him that the penalty of doing so was death, and he asked him if he would reconsider. Zabuza still refused, and the man had left shortly after.

Zabuza had thought that they had forgotten about his penalty when there was no word from the organization after many months. But apparently, whoever was in charge had remembered him. He had been upset to hear that his former colleague, Kisame Hoshigaki, had been attacked by the organization. Zabuza wasn't ashamed to admit that he himself was only the second strongest of the Seven Swordsmen, with Kisame being the most powerful. So he knew that when he heard of Kisame's disappearance, that the shark had gone into hiding. After all, Kisame wielded Samehada, one of the Legendary Swords of the world. It took more than one S-ranked ninja to take out a legendary sword wielded by another S-ranked ninja, so he could safely assume that Kisame had survived. But would he?

"…We will have to go into hiding," Zabuza said, somewhat fearfully. "I don't want to risk fighting an elite Uchiha and a Lin Kuei…we're going to have to escape immediately after we kill Tazuna and go into hiding for a period of time. We may have to form ourselves new identities as well, and-"

Zabuza was interrupted as the doors burst open, and Gato, surrounded by two samurai, entered the room. Gozu and Meizu snarled in the direction of the disgusting man, and they left the room quickly by disappearing in a pool of water.

"Zabuza!" the short man yelled out, having no fear of the demon before him. "I received word that you _failed _to kill the bridge builder! I-"

Gato was cut short in the middle of his sentence when Zabuza swung his massive sword forward, causing Gato's hair and clothes to fly back for several moments as if Zabuza had used a _wind _jutsu.

"_I _didn't fail to kill anybody," Zabuza coldly stated, not in the mood for bickering with the short man who now realized who in fact he was berating. "I failed to realize the power of the people guarding the bridge builder. The only time I ever _failed _to kill someone was when it was the Mizukage, who I'm sure is much stronger than some bridge builder. _I _will not fail my job, _ever _again. Tazuna…consider him dead."

Gato quickly attempted to realign his suit and tidy up his hair which had been to drastically blown off place. Scuttling backwards, he gave his mercenary one last dirty look before he left while saying,

"Humph! Just get the job done or you're never going to get a penny off of me!"

* * *

_Konoha's Escort, Midday _

Sasuke Uchiha was strong, talented good looking, and, what he prized the most, gifted with vision. In many cases, his skills of observation and perception could stun anyone, including his Jonin sensei. However, he didn't need to delve deep into his skills to notice how his two best friends were growing closer together than perhaps he would like.

Hinata liked Naruto, there was no question about that, and Sasuke had known this for years. However, his childhood thoughts had been around the 'why can't we all be best friends!' idea. Still, he couldn't help but feel somewhat…left out when he saw the closeness between Naruto and Hinata. He was his brother, wasn't he? There was no way Hinata could be closer to Naruto than he was…well, unless you got touchy feelings involved.

When Naruto and Hinata had returned to the inn last evening with him holding her in his arms, Sasuke couldn't help but smile at Naruto's confused and worried face about why Hinata had passed out. Naruto seemed to be the only person in Konoha who didn't know of why the young Hyuuga actually blushed in front of him. It had slept through the entire night without ever waking up, which was quite a feat. Whatever Naruto must have told her this time must have knocked her out real good.

The group had begun to travel once more the next morning, though it took some effort to…revive a rather hung over Tazuna. Once everyone was ready to go, they got back on the main trail and headed toward the east edge of Konoha. However, being the large country that it was, Kakashi and Anko both knew that at their current walking pace it would still take them quite a long while before they reached the border. Unfortunately, Naruto knew this as well.

"Come on, Kakashi sensei!" he whined, never ceasing to annoy the man. "Teach us a cool new jutsu! I want to do something cool while we walk!'

Kakashi sighed and didn't even bother looking up from his book. He wondered for a moment if Anko had to deal with this type of stuff from her students.

"Unlike you, Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke don't have the Rinnegan, and they are unable to produce a large range of elemental attacks. You won't be learning any _cool _jutsu, which I've learned by your definition is jutsu that blows things up."

Sasuke snorted in agreement and Hinata gave a small smile in Naruto's direction. However, the blonde boy himself was unfazed by Kakashi's demeanor.

"It doesn't have to blow things up. It could be anything! I just want to learn something new!" Naruto stopped as a thought came to his mind. "I have an idea! Why don't you teach us that jutsu that makes you disappear in a cloud of smoke! Every Jonin in Konoha just disappears after meetings or anything! Teach us how to do it!"

Kakashi appeared to be in deep thought as he looked up to the sky, rubbing his chin.

"Hmm…well…no."

Naruto's face fell as Kakashi eye-smiled and looked back to his book, trying to end the conversation. Anko, who had been walking next to him, decided to speak up as she had a little sympathy for Naruto.

"Kakashi, you're a lazy bastard and I don't know how you ever became a Jonin," she started off, not surprising anyone. "How about this; I can teach everyone here a jutsu that you all should manage to create. Hmm, let me think…how about the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique! I've already taught my team how to do it, so I can teach it to you guys now!"

Naruto completely forgot Kakashi and turned to the other sensei, nodding his head energetically.

* * *

_Unknown Location_

Itachi frowned as he stood in front of the entrance to the castle that was the first Akatsuki base established. His mission with Sub-Zero had been called off for the time being because they had been summoned to the main hideout by Nagato. He had commanded that they had to be there in physical person instead of using the astral projection technique. He walked through the entrance with his partner, and immediately after they walked through the many seals which guarded the base's location, they teleported to the throne room where they were summoned.

They had arrived minutes early, as the majority of the elevated thrones were left unfilled. As Itachi jumped up to his own thrown labeled _crimson_, he noticed that the thrones themselves were positioned in a new way. Instead of surrounding the center throne as they did before in a circle, they now did it in a half circle, so that whoever was sitting in the throne could see every member.

As the minutes passed, more and more members appeared in their thrones, even Tobi, who was known to be chronically late, until the only people who were not present were Pain and the Leader himself. Now that Itachi was more observant, he noticed that Nagato's old throne was no longer elevated; it was gone completely. Strange…

Just then, in an orange flash, Nagato appeared in front of the main throne, taking a seat in it which surprised several.

"Silence," he commanded in a voice laced with chakra so that it radiated powerfully throughout the large room. He nodded in satisfaction as the room immediately well quiet, allowing him to speak. "The Leader of our organization has left us and he will be gone for a period of time," he began, eyeing everyone in the room with his orange tinted Rinnegan.

The Leader was gone? Itachi frowned as he stared down at his friend, wondering what this was leading to.

"He will return upon the time of his choosing," Pain continued, his voice still low and powerfully laced in chakra. "In his place, he has assigned me as the new Leader of Akatsuki. If there is anyone who objects to this, please speak now, as I have permission to kill any opposing members."

His eyes first darted to Hidan, who he had almost expected to retort to his statement. However, to his surprise, even the wild and untamed Hidan remained silent and nodded his head. Pain looked around the room, locking eyes with each and every member, almost as if he was daring any defiance. Itachi had to resist the urge to flinch when Nagato's eyes connected with his own crimson ones. The eyes that he saw…they weren't the same as the ones that he had known in Konoha. Nagato had changed…there was no longer any sense of happiness that he saw before in his old friend. However, he was sure that his own eyes reflected the same change as well. When he occasionally glanced in the mirror, he was shocked to see how cold his eyes looked. There was no childishness left within them, no joy or anything.

"Very well," Pain declared, pleased that no one resisted his newly announced authority. "Konan will be the temporary second in command as she was my previous partner. We will currently cease our search for the Bijuu, as the Leader has requested that we do not do so until his return as leader. Instead, you will continue with whatever jobs I assign your team. If you do not currently have a mission, then you will retire to this base or any future bases that _Metal Earth _creates until you are given one. This meeting is over. Resume whatever missions you were currently on, and report to me when you have finished them. Itachi, stay behind for a moment. Everyone else, dismissed."

Moments after saying that, everyone in the room aside from Itachi and Konan, disappeared in a flash of speed, leaving the three old teammates alone.

Itachi jumped down from his throne, and landed next Nagato, along with Konan. He allowed himself a smile as he patted Nagato on the back.

"Leader of Akatsuki, eh?" he said, smiling to himself though Pain didn't find it that amusing. "That's almost like…becoming the Hokage. Minato-sensei would be proud," he joked, dodging the kunai that whipped by his head.

Pain frowned deeply as he was not amused in the least. "Now is not the time to be joking around," he began, sighing when Konan began throwing paper shuriken at the elusive Itachi. "I have grave news."

Itachi and Konan came to a halt, but Itachi still continued to smile.

"What's grave? You just became the Leader of our organization, the Leader is gone for a while, and he ordered us not to search for Naruto! That just gave him a lot more time to train!"

Pain nodded at this information, sad to be the bearer of bad news. "There is a reason why the Leader has put me in charge. He has his mind set on…bigger things," he began, gaining the attention of the two before him. "He realized that the Bijuu would be useless to him as he currently is. Let me explain to you a little history of our Leader so that you understand the seriousness of our current situation."

Both Itachi and Konan nodded and waiting for Pain to continue.

"I'll make this short and to the point. Gyatso, as you know him well, was the first to posses the Rinnegan. However, this is what I learned from the Leader himself. According to him, he and Gyatso were childhood friends, and they grew up training together with a powerful rivalry. They both rose to fame when they grew strong enough to fight the Jubi, the original Ten-Tailed Beast which ravaged different lands with legendary powers. Needless to say, they won, but only because Gyatso, using his Rinnegan, was able to seal the Jubi inside of him after they had tired the beast.

"All his life, the Leader wished to have the power of the Jubi, and he grew jealous of his friend. When Gyatso died at the hand of the Leader, he split the Jubi inside of him into nine smaller demons, known today as the Bijuu."

Itachi frowned as he wondered how any of this could be interpreted as bad news. He didn't interrupt however and allowed Nagato to continue.

"The Leader is strong, and he _was _stronger before, but he realized that even with whatever power he could achieve, he still wasn't completely invincible. He knew those with the power of the Triforce and Rinnegan could beat him, like Gyatso and Rinku had done in the past. He realizes now that he needs even more power to become invincible, and I believe he has finally found a way."

Both Konan and Itachi's eyes widened at this statement, not knowing the true meaning behind what it meant.

"No normal ninja could kill him when he was at his peak in the past. He had thought he was invincible then, but he realized that it was the power of the Triforce and Gyatso's Rinnegan which was able to seal him away for many years. The Leader knows that only the 'chosen one' will have the potential to face him, so he is currently honing his own powers, and is out to search and kill the one who has the Triforce himself."

Konan gasped at this, and Itachi stepped forward clearly agitated.

"You mean," Itachi asked, "he's going to find Naruto and kill him? We have to stop him! We have to warn Naruto!!"

Nagato shook his head, surprising the Uchiha. "We cannot. We are fortunate that the Leader does not currently know who the one who possesses the Rinnegan is. If we were to come in contact with Naruto for no reason at all, I'm sure he would figure out what it meant. Rinku, the last hero, was not born into the Namikaze Clan. He was a ninja from Rain who suddenly awakened the Legendary Rinnegan after defending his life. He ran away to Konoha were we honed his skills, and taught him what was necessary. This is why he doesn't necessarily believe that Naruto must have the Triforce, especially after I told him that I hadn't seen anything special about my brother. That means he doesn't know the age of whoever he thinks has it. He thinks that it could be someone older who has mastered all of the elements as well as the Rinnegan, so he wants to train himself and make sure he is strong enough to face whoever has it.

"This is not the worse part," he continued, "Not only does he want to kill the one who has the Triforce, but he wants to steal its power. He realized that even he could not seal the Jubi within himself and live. The only reason why Gyatso could do it was because the purity and power of the Triforce seal kept the evil and consuming power of the Jubi at bay. Without the Triforce, the Jubi would consume the Leader from within and he would die."

Konan nodded, completely understanding what she had been told.

"So he can't do anything with the Bijuu until he has the Triforce, which is why he postponed our search for them," she said, earning a solemn nod from Nagato, "And he's searching for Naruto to kill his only threat and steal the Triforce from him…"

Nagato nodded, once again. "We must do everything we can to make sure that this does not happen, for if it does, the world will be consumed in evil and there will be no one strong enough to stop him."

* * *

_Kumo, Afternoon_

Roku sighed as he left the ramen bar hastily and headed back to the hospital. Naminé had been hospitalized for several days, and the doctors recommended that she should stay there to fully recover from the…incident.

Roku cursed for the thousandths time as the memory of the hooded attacker reappeared in his mind. The attacker had kicked Naminé in the neck while he, Roku, could do nothing but watch as he fell into unconsciousness.

He had to take a deep breath and calm down as the towns people began to give him strange looks with all of the noticeable killer intent he was leaking out. Gripping the big bag which held the ramen in it, as well as some other things which he wanted to bring with him, he quickly continued walking as he headed over to the hospital.

Ignoring the polite bow which the hospital attendant gave him, he rapidly headed up toward Naminé's room, hoping that she was awake. When he reached her door, he took another deep breath, hoping that he didn't have any more killer intent coming out of him.

He frowned when he considered knocking again after he didn't hear a response. He was about to bring his hand to hit the door again when the bold fact dumped on him like ice water.

Naminé _couldn't _respond.

His handle on the bag tightened as killer intent began to leak out of him again. According to the doctors, she would _never _be able to respond again.

Taking a moment to calm down, he slowly opened the door, poking just his head in.

"Naminé-chan, can I enter?" he called in, looking for a nod from her or another motion. When she waved her arm and him and smiled, he nodded and closed the door behind him, walking into the room. Naminé was currently sitting in her bed, bored, as she was instructed to rest for several days. Still, she managed to smile upon seeing her friend and she waved him over.

Looking at the bandages on her next and the multiple bruises which covered her body made Roku want to produce more killer intent, but he restrained himself, making sure that he would not make this unpleasant for Naminé. One thing was certain however, the attacker which harmed Naminé _would _be punished, and if Roku had his way, the attacked would be dead when he was finished. How could anyone harm such an innocent girl? One who still managed to smile after all that had happened to her…

"Hey, Naminé-chan!" he greeted, sitting down on the bed beside her. He found that he could still smile around her, which was relieving from his stress. Unable to greet back, Naminé settled for smiling brightly and grabbing his free hand, giving it a soft squeeze. She looked curiously at the bag in Roku's hand, her eyebrows furrowing as she wondered what was in it.

Roku smiled as he began to explain. He figured because Naminé couldn't talk, he would just have to talk twice as much so that he would make up for her own silence.

"I went to Kigurou's this morning to make sure he knew about what happened at to try and console him," Roku explained, hiding that it was the other way around and that it was Kigurou that had done all the consoling. "He made you a special bowl of ramen so that I could bring you lunch! Isn't that cool? I bet you you're going to love ramen after all of this terrible hospital food. Once I broke my arm and had to be hospitalized for a little bit. I hated the food here! It was so drab and boring…"

Roku stopped at his attempts to keep his own conversation flowing when he noticed Naminé's smile falter for a split second and her lower lip tremble. Mentally cursing for his own ignorance, he stopped talking and chuckled nervously.

"Yeah…you're probably hungry and don't want to hear me talk right now…" he awkwardly realized, unfolding the bag and pulling out the cup of ramen which was inside of it. He got up and put in on a nearby tray, opening it so that it could cool down. He smiled and took a deep breath as the sickly hospital smell instantly vanished and was instead replaced by the ever inviting fragrance of hot ramen. However, it was a little too hot, and he wanted to wait for a couple of minutes before he gave to her.

"It's kinda hot right now," Roku explained sitting back down on the bed right in front of Naminé, grabbing the bag which he had left on the bed, "I don't want you to accidently burn yourself like I did one time…" he trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

Naminé was unsure what to think of her current situation. But one thing was for sure; she never felt so _cared _for in her life aside from now. Back at her old home with all of the angels, she was scorned for being the student of the biggest traitor, and because of it she had no friends, along with no family aside from her mom who had died anyways.

But here…first she was not only accepted but cared for by Kigurou, who left her work for her _and _live with him like a father! She was more than happy enough to live the rest of her life with her father figure, seeing how she had no one else to stay with. But, she was surprised when yet _another _precious person entered her life! Roku was more than she could have ever asked for…he became the friend that she had always dreamed of having as she spied on the other children around her having fun when she was younger. All she ever wanted was just one friend that she could play with, but she was denied that in her childhood.

But Roku went beyond just being her friend. He had become her _best _friend. He was always with her, always beside her during the good times and the bad times. He helped her and spent time with her, he trained her and protected her. He laughed with her and he made her laugh. Her biggest fear when she had lost her voice was wondering if Roku would get tired of her disability and leave her because of it. However, Roku seemed to care for her even more now that she was hospitalized and couldn't speak.

All of this combined made her feel like she wanted to let out her emotions by shouting with joy. But, since she couldn't necessarily do that now, she felt her happy emotions flooded through her in the form of tears which wanted to erupt from her already blurry vision as Roku sat in front of her, basically telling her how much he cared for her by just talking.

"…Oh ya," Roku continued as he had been talking all the while she had been thinking, "Kinzoku, my friend, sent me a letter in the mail. He wanted to congratulate me on my new vision, and he sent a get well gift card for you as well. It was actually pretty nice…"

Roku pulled out a two cards from his pocket, putting them both on the desks beside the hospital bed.

"My parents sent you one too," he explained when her eyebrows rose up, "See!? I told you that they like you more than you thought they did! My mom even baked you some cookies," he said rather embarrassed, pulling out a smaller bag with cookies in it from the big original bag. He placed those besides Naminé letter's as well.

"Let's see, what else," Roku said as he went through the bag. Suddenly, a memory resurfaced in his brain. "Oh yeah! Kirabi was at the ramen bar this morning! He heard what happened to us, and apparently most of Kumo knows now, and he wanted me to tell you that he hoped you feel better, and that he's gonna pummel whoever did it to you," he exclaimed, leaving out the little jab Kirabi had added about Roku's _closeness _with Naminé.

When Roku saw now real physical response from Naminé, he assumed that she must be tired, so he clapped his hands together, standing up out of the bed.

"Ja! I think your ramen is probably cooled down by now…" He walked over to grab the tray when he noticed how stiff Naminé had gotten, and that she was staring down at her own hands.

"Eh, Naminé-chan, are you feeling alright? Do you not want the ramen?"

Upon closer inspection, Roku realized that Naminé's hands were trembling along with her lower lip, and that she sniffed as if she had a cold. He was about to offer her if she needed help when she let out a rather quiet and low breathing sound.

Roku froze as Naminé buried her face in her hands, now openly sobbing. Her shoulders were quivering and shaking and he saw tears escape her hands and fall to her lap. Roku's first reaction was to dart his head around the room, almost as if he wanted to see if there was a nurse or someone who could help her. When he realized that no one was there, he turned back to his friend who was breaking down in front of him. Even though her cries were silent, Roku cringed as though she were screaming out at the top of her lungs.

He would feel much better himself if he knew what he was supposed to do in this sort of situation. He carefully sat down on the bed next to her and gave her a hopefully reassuring rub on her shoulder. "Uh…it's going to be alright, Naminé-chan," he nervously said, as if he himself didn't really believe it. It would help if he knew what was causing her to cry in the first place.

He felt like a complete moron when Naminé's crying got worse. Why didn't he know what to do? His parents made him take etiquette classes when he was younger, so didn't he know how to console a crying girl? What was he supposed to do?!

"Please, Naminé-chan, stop crying!" he begged, feeling miserable as he watched his friend continued to break down in front of him. He was surprised to find out how wretched he was feeling just by watching her cry. He would rather have the whole village laugh at him or have to do thousands of pushups rather than watch his best friend hurt so much in front of him. Seeing her so hurt somehow hurt him just as much, though that was only just beginning to make sense to him. When she had been kicked in the throat, he wished hundreds of times that it had been him instead.

Naminé violently shook her head as she tried to hold back her sobs and sit up straight. Tears were still flowing down her face, and she was biting her trembling lower lip as if she was trying her best not to start crying again.

Roku scooted closer to her, feeling somewhat relived that she had recovered from whatever had caused her to cry. He had no idea what he did to cause it or did to stop it, but he prayed that it didn't happen again. Ever.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder in a friendly gesture, hoping to be alright. "Don't worry, Naminé-chan," he comforted, "I'm here for you. You're okay."

Strangely enough, this only caused to make Naminé cry full out once again. Roku mentally cursed his unfortunate luck as he caused his friend to cry once again. What the hell was he doing wrong?!

He was about to pull his arm off of her hastily due to its obviously negative effects when Naminé forcefully wrapped her arms around her in a hug that made it somewhat difficult for Roku to breath. Roku allowed a sigh to escape his lips as he allowed his friend to cry into him, hoping that she would start feeling better. He wasn't sure if this contact was making her worse, but for some reason, it just felt right to him.

After several minutes, Naminé's sobbing subsided until Roku could just hear her gentle and calm breaths as well as the rising and falling of her body which was pressed tightly against his. However, Naminé's grip didn't release for a while afterwards, for which Roku was grateful. As long as she wasn't crying, then he was fine with whatever made her feel better.

Thinking ahead, he reached over and grabbed the tray of food with the ramen on it, hoping that it hadn't grown cold. He set it on his lap, carefully cracking opening the chopsticks that came with it with his one free hand. With a small smile, he carefully grabbed some noodles and brought it up to Naminé's face which was on his chest. It took her a while to notice it was there, but when she did, she smiled and opened her mouth, allowing Roku to feed her.

What disability Naminé now had stopped her from speaking, but only that. It overjoyed her to know that Roku stilled cared for her the same even though she couldn't speak.

Roku smiled to himself as he continued to feed his friend, knowing that she was smiling as well. Naminé had tolerated _him _when _he _had the disability of blindness, so if anyone thought that he wouldn't still like her as much as they did; they were _dead_ wrong, almost as dead as whoever hurt Naminé was going to be.

Little did the two know that their bond would only grow stronger after jumping above the small obstacle that fell along their course of friendship.

* * *

_Land of Waves_

After another day of traveling, they finally made it to the border of the land of fire where Team 7 and Team 8 were forced to take a canoe across the large waters which bordered the land. Mist fell heavily around them, to the point where it was difficult to see several feet in front of them. Unfortunately for them, the canoe available wasn't large enough to support both teams, so Gaara, Kairi and Sai settled for riding on a platform of sand, courtesy of the Sand ninja.

"Hinata," Kakashi instructed to his student. He needn't say anything else as Hinata immediately knew what she had to do. Forming one seal, she quietly muttered 'Byakugan' under her breath, instantly granting her near-perfect vision. She frowned however when she realized that that she couldn't see much farther than she could when she had regular vision. He own Byakugan was limited to about thirty feet around her.

"Ano, this mist is layered with chakra," Hinata announced, identifying the problem. "I c-can't see very far!"

Kakashi nodded as he processed the information with his hardened Jonin mind. "That means that there is most likely another ninja set after us, one who can set traps," he announced, causing the eyes of everyone to harden. "The ninja set after us will most likely be stronger than either the previous ones combined, or, there will be more ninja sent, or possibly a combination of both. Either way, I want everyone to be on their top guard!"

"Hai!" a chorus of salutes rang from both teams, listening to their caption.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto announced, causing the attention of everyone to turn to him. "I sent out four clones to scout around us. With their Rinnegan, I can see anything they see when I activate mine and they can relay messages to me." Kakashi nodded, pleased with the ability that Naruto had. Next, Sai spoke up.

"Anko sensei, would you like me to scout from the skies until Tazuna-san returns home safely? I'll also check and see how far this mist goes on. " he asked his own sensei, who was on the parallel boat riding next to him. The snake-ninja frowned thoughtfully, and nodded signaling for him to follow ahead with the idea.

Sai nodded, and forming several hand-seals, he surprised Team 7 by spitting out ink from his mouth, which instantly transformed into an ink-hawk in the air. Jumping on it, he nodded to his team and flew up into the air, disappearing from sight.

* * *

_Elsewhere_

"They sent one of the Genin into the sky," Haku reported from beside her sensei. Haku, aside from her talents in _ice _jutsu and hand-to-hand combat, was a sensory type ninja who could visualize other people's movements better than the Byakugan itself. Zabuza nodded; assessing the information he had been given. He already knew of the many doujutsu's which the team possessed, and his Hidden Mist Jutsu really helped him in that aspect. Only the strongest and most elite doujutsu users could see through _his _mist, and he knew that there was no way any of them could have advanced their bloodlines that far yet.

"Very well. Take care of the one who flew above us when I give the signal. Haku, I know it's against your nature, but fight to kill. I've heard interesting things about these Genin and I don't want you to underestimate _any _of them. Am I clear?" he asked, not even looking at the young girl beside him.

"Crystal clear."

* * *

_End_

A/N: I'm taking my time with the story development, if you haven't already noticed. I don't enjoy reading chapters where the majority of the wave arc comes and goes in a chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to make the chapters interesting along the way so that they are easier to read.

Thanks for reading this chapter! I won't be able to write over this Thanksgiving break, because my family is going out on a vacation, for the first time. I kinda rushed this chapter so I could get it out before break, but I think it turned out alright.

Please notice the small changes I made in the last chapter. There's no read to re-read, but just know that it was **Koutetsu **who kicked Naminé, not Suigetsu.

Also, I'm sorry for the spelling errors, and I'll read through this more after I update it to this site and try to change the ones I see then.

I hope that everyone enjoys the break! Happy thanksgiving! Omake coming up after review replies.

Anotamous: Great question. Team powers would be rated much differently, and I would probably rate them out of 10. 10 of course would be a team such as Pain, Konan and Itachi at their current status, and 1 would probably be the Konohamaru Corps. A level 7 would consist of a team of Jonin, 8 or nine would be Sannin…and Team 7 would probably be down by level 4. It's really confusing now, but I might be able to clarify more next chapter or add it to the power list.

roshane: I understand that it is easy to skip to the parts with Naruto or Hinata in them, but I fully recommend reading everything. There are some boring scenes I could add for character development, but the ones I add are really necessary for the story. You might be really confused later on in the story if you skip certain parts.

dbtiger63: Thanks! You catch on quickly.

Garuto: Thanks for the review! Naminé had to turn out mute…life is not perfect I guess. That's not an excuse, I'm kidding. I just added it for character development and I had originally planned it out.

VLS: Thank you!

Lightblade77: I'm hoping so. I wanted to break away from the original Chunin Exams and make it much more originally.

Rena: Thanks Rena! And yes, all Jinchuuriki are OBSESSED with ramen! I'm gonna be dedicating this Omake to it too. And I hope that I'll be able to make the Wave Arc more interesting while we're at it.

adngo714: ha-ha that's so true. I guess I just wanted to make each character besides 'I grew up a happy and normal kid."

aki6: Naminé's background will be important in the future, and it will eventually come up again in later chapters. It will be explained in depth.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-williams5505

* * *

Omake: Bond Between Bijuu

* * *

Yugito sighed and turned away to hide her embarrassment as her…lively partner dragged her away down the busy streets of Kumo.

"I'm telling you," Kirabi exclaimed in his unnecessarily loud voice. "You're gonna love this stuff! All of _us _do!"

For the millionth time, she sighed at the stupid comment that came out of Kirabi. "Baka!" she chided, trying to ignore the fact that her cheeks were heating up with him still holding her hand. "Just because we are Jinchuuriki doesn't mean that I _have _to love ramen!"

Kirabi snorted, as if she had just said 'just because you add 2 and 2 together doesn't mean it has to equal 4.'

"I guarantee that you are gonna love it! Listen to this: Roku loves this stuff, and he says that he learned about it from the Jinchuuriki of Konoha, who loved this stuff. Aaaannd, I learned that the _other _Jinchuuriki of Konoha that came from Suna _loves _ramen too! That's not all! I just talked with my buddy Roshi and it turns out that ramen is _his _favorite food too!

"Do you SEE the connection!" he screamed out, stopping, grabbing both of her hands and staring at her directly inches away from her face. Yugito could feel her face heat up and flush with Kirabi so close to her, but she still held firm in her beliefs.

"T-T-That's still ridiculous!" she said, wondering how the hell he researched all of this.

Kirabi finally shrugged and continued leading her to his famous ramen bar.

"Humph! Find out for yourself!"

Kirabi almost wasn't surprised when he saw Roku sitting on one of the stools of the ramen bar.

"HEEEYY, Nanabi-chan!" he called out, slapping Roku on the back and sitting in the stool next to him with Yugito sitting beside him. Looking around, Kirabi noticed that Naminé wasn't there with him.

"So, where's your little girlfriend?" he asked innocently enough, jabbing Roku in the side.

Surprisingly enough, Roku merely flushed a little bit but didn't smile or retort back at the comment.

"…She's in the hospital," he eventually said.

Kirabi's immediately died down and a frown covered his face.

"Really? That's awful! Wait; don't tell me…was she involved in that brawl that erupted in the Korochi Clan the other day?"

Roku nodded solemnly.

"Yeah. She was quickly really badly in the neck by some foreign ninja," he hissed out bitterly. "…She's mute now."

Kirabi's eyes hardened at this fact. He really liked that cutie blonde waitress that always 'hooked him up' when he was 'cravin' for some good stuff'. She would always smile, and laugh at his jokes…and every once in a while she would give him a free meal! Anyone who hurt her was directly hurting him! She was also kind spirited, and Kirabi respected her for that.

"Damn! It sucks to hear that," he told Roku, looking to the side. "I really like that Blondie. Are you going to go and see her?" he asked Roku, now noticing the large bag he had beside him.

Roku nodded.

"Good. Tell your girlfriend that I hope she feels better, and that I'm gonna pummel whoever did that to her."

Roku nodded more firmly now, with a slight less slouch in his shoulders. When Kigurou returned with his order, Roku put it in the bag and dashed off in the direction to the hospital.

"How you doing, Kigurou-sama?" he asked the chef was seemed much less happier that he usually was.

"Eh. I'm really upset about Naminé and all, but I'm going to try and not let it get to me so much. So, who's the lady?" he asked, causing Yugito to blush.

Kirabi grinned. "I'm taking Yugito here on a nice _date _so she can see that ramen is as good as I've been telling her!"

This caused Kigurou-'sama' to smile. "Ha! I'm glad that you're spreading the word! I'll hook you two youngsters up with a bow right away!"

If he heard any of Yugito's mumbles about it not being a date, he chose not to show it.

Minutes later, Kigurou came back with two bowls of ramen, setting one in front of both of them. After an immediate 'Itadakimasu', Kirabi dove right in. Yugito couldn't help but admit that the smell was inviting, but she restrained herself and slowly lowered her chopsticks to grab some noodles, and she slowly raised them back to eat.

The results were immediate.

"Sugoi!!" she called out, hearts forming in her eyes. It wasn't long until she was eating at a pace almost as quickly as Kirabi. If she listened close enough, she would have been able to hear the Bijuu inside of her crying out in joy as well.

"I told you so," Killer Bee announced. "All Jinchuuriki love this stuff!"

"I know!!! I was wrong!!"

Behind the counter, Kigurou stroked his chin in deep thought as he pondered this revelation.

_Hmm…I guess that makes Kumo the ideal location as there are 3 Jinchuuriki here…if this is true, I believe my business as just boomed with this new customer!_

* * *

_Iwa_

"I'm telling you, you're gonna love this stuff!" the red haired and bearded Roshi claimed as he sat next to his fellow Jinchuuriki.

Han, being the ever logical fellow, refused to belief that simple because he was a Jinchuuriki he would enjoy ramen. The two were completely unrelated!

"Itadakimasu!"

Strangely enough, when the Rock-nin took a bite, he was overwhelmed by a pure sense of…joy! This stuff was…amazing!"

The ramen chef smirked as he knew a hooked customer when he saw one.

_I'm going to be doing pretty well…I'm lucky that I have TWO Jinchuuriki here!_

* * *

_Takigakure and Kiri_

Simultaneously, after a formal Itadakimasu, it wasn't surprising to hear:

"Holy shit! This stuff is off the hook!"

"Interesting…I'm quite…intrigued with this…ramen!"

* * *

_End_


	14. Battle in the Mist

I'm zooming through the Wave Arc. I really want to get through it in about two chapters, and I think I will. I know that many people dislike this arc in general and hope to get along with the Chunin Exams and the rest of the plot, so I'm trying to get through this asap. Hopefully this chapter will be more intense as it revolves around the one of the two battles of the wave arc. Enjoy.

**Important Note:** Yes, this note is important enough to have the notice be bolded. Some reviewers have made good points on how my story crossing over too much into the Zelda genre. While Zelda is my favorite video game series, I do not intend to cross it over with this Naruto fic. While some strong pointers have been indicating such a crossover, like the Triforce and the appearance of Link, I assure, this fic is a Naruto one. The idea of the Triforce will be kept, but, to get more rid of the feeling of Zelda, I've decided to change Link's name to Rinku. His character hasn't changed, though it hasn't really been revealed yet, but his name has been to change the feel of the story. Also, for the notice of all, Ganondorf is **not **the Leader of Akatsuki. There may have been hints or something towards this, but he is not. So, that's it; the only Zelda reference there is, is the Triforce seal on Naruto's hand.

As of OCs, I realize how annoying they can be, as well as how easy it is to skip past their parts and move on to Naruto. I've already installed all of the OCs that I really need right now, so there will not be more coming in. I needed to introduce OCs like Koutetsu and Roku, who will be appearing later in the story as well as in the Chunin Exams. And for memories purpose, at the end of this chapter, I will describe the OCs that I have created thus far so that nobody will be too confused.

Let's Begin!

The Second Born

Chapter 14: Battle in the Mist

* * *

_Land of Waves_

Haku narrowed her eyes behind her mask as she zeroed in on her prey, which was currently flying in the sky above her. She was waiting for Zabuza to give her the signal, which was a small pulse of chakra that only she would be able to catch, and then she would take down the Genin that was flying above Tazuna. Luckily for her, Sai, as she had studied on him, was flying high enough so that the mist covered him from ordinary view. And since she was crouching in the top of a tall tree, she was able to see him above her master's ninjutsu.

Being ever the studious one, Haku made it a habit to study any ninja that made it into the bingo book with painstaking detail. She made sure that she would know everything she could possibly know about her opponent so that she would have an edge, regardless of how small it was, should she ever fight one of them. Sai, however, was barely mentioned in the book at all. She knew that he was previously under the tutelage of Kakashi of the Sharingan, but only because two of his peers had killed several Jonin one night.

Haku swallowed hard when she silently killed the small bit of fear that naturally crept up in her. She may be capable of killing one Jonin based on her skills, and that may only be because of her secret jutsu which she had created. A ninja only became a Jonin through either great experience or unnatural talent. And for Naruto and Sasuke to have been able to kill several Jonin (or so she had read) made them quite the opponents. Zabuza and her, however, had the advantage of surprise and it use of terrain. Along with that, her master's mist jutsu blocked out the main abilities of Team 7's bloodline limits.

However, what she did not know was much about Gaara of the Desert and the white haired girl that traveled with that team. She knew very little about Gaara; she only read up that he was the son of the Kazekage and he ran away from his home village. As for the white-haired girl, Haku knew not even her name. This would prove to be-

Haku flinched and her back stood up stiffly as she felt the nearly uncatchable pulse of chakra that she recognized had come from Zabuza. Pushing all thoughts aside, she nodded to herself and flew through several hand-seals at insane speeds, preparing for her assignment. She had been quietly following Sai, and now it was finally time to take him down. She of course already knew the jutsu that she would use to hopefully take him out in one hit, so she was quick to finish her seals and silently think to herself,

'_Ice Release: Ice Needles!'_

Holding both of her hands forward, hundreds of small and nearly untraceable senbon made of ice rapidly propelled forward in a flash of chakra, headed towards the white hawk that was flying above her.

She allowed herself a sigh of relief when the needles pierced through the bird, causing it to explode into what had to be some sort of black liquid similar to ink. She frowned however when Sai began to fall down from the sky, knowing that he was still alive. He had somehow managed to remain uninjured from her attack, which caused her to push chakra into her legs.

Wanting to finish the job before a real fight started, she propelled herself into the air like a missile going at insane speeds toward her falling target. Pulling out a senbon during her travel, she drew her arm back and prepared to lodge it through her enemy's neck when she was close enough.

In what seemed like slow motion, she neared Sai, and when she was in close proximity to him, she thrust her arm forward, hoping to end his life quickly and painlessly. She was greatly surprised however when Sai flipped in air, with a tanto (short flat sword) in his hands, and expertly blocked her senbon with practiced ease.

__________

Sai understood that there was an enemy in the area who had obviously set up the mist around them. So, when he was flying and scouting from above, he knew that the enemy would most likely attack him first. After all, he had gone through similar situations in his sensei's…rather strange training sessions. So, not only was he prepared to block an attack, but he himself was traveling below in the trees, only having sent his clone in the air as a decoy.

He was surprised however at the speed of his attacker's frontal engagement, and was pleased that his clone had managed not to disperse when the attack connected. Also, the near-shunshin speed in which the masked ninja dashed out of the trees surprised him. His ink clone had managed to block the attack, and he was pleased to know that he might be able to assess his enemy's abilities if he or she fought with his clone. Also, he might have enough time to report back to the group that he knew the location of the attacker. After all, he had flown fairly far in front of everyone and off of the main trail, so it was unlikely that they would spot him soon. But, if he left and his clone was destroyed, his attacker would be able to hide again and they would lose their edge.

Sai frowned when the impact of the attacker's senbon strike reversed his clone's previous momentum and sent the two flying high in the air. The two seemed to battle over strength as they each attempted to push their weapon closer to the other, with no avail. He was surprised yet again when the attacker quickly performed _one-handed _seals, which caused water to form out of the air into an _ice _spear and pierce the side of his clone.

He certainly wouldn't have time to check back with his team.  
__________

Haku gasped when the person she had just killed exploded into dark ink in the air, similar to the way the bird had done before it. She cursed when she realized that she had already disobeyed Zabuza's orders and let her guard down. She was a sensor type! She should have been able to realize that she had been following a clone if she had checked carefully, but she was too focused on the initial attack to even check.

Her thoughts were cut off when the ink around her turned into white snakes which quickly enwrapped her body, not allowing any movement. She cursed as she plummeted back down to earth. Her plan of surprising Sai had been reversed, and now she had found herself in a dangerous situation for herself.

__________

Sai allowed his opponent to fall to the ground and quickly jumped over to where he guessed the attacker landed. When he saw him, he quickly assessed from what he saw of the attacker on the ground. The enemy was in strange ninja robes, and had a mask on not too different from the masks of the Anbu and Root. Knowing the Kiri symbols that were engraved into the forehead of the mask, Sai deducted that this attacker was sure to be a Hunter-nin from Kiri. But why would Kiri send a hunter-nin after Zabuza?

Before he could think any further, the hunter dispersed into water, only to reappear directly in front of Sai, with another senbon ready. Cursing for being caught off guard, Sai dodged her sideways slash that would have cut his through by jumping backwards several feet, pulling out his tanto in one hand and his paintbrush already dipped in ink in another.

"_Ninja Art: Ink Serpent Technique!_"

Sai initiated his attack by pointing his paintbrush at Haku after some rather quick hand-seals with his weapons still in his hands. Suddenly, a white ink snake burst forth from Sai's brush and spiraled toward Haku at a swift pace, giving her little time to avoid the attack. However, before his snake could bite down on his attacker, she expertly thrust her kunai into the neck of the snake after leaning to the side quickly to avoid the attack, while at the same time she managed to flick around seven senbon at Sai with equally shocking speed.

Sai was forced to use his tanto to block all of the thrown projectiles as his technique was destroyed. He mentally noted that each senbon seemed to be thrown in a vital area on his body. This assassin was_ not _playing around, nor was he an amateur.

In this split moment, Haku's eyes widened beneath her mask as a memory resurfaced in her mind. This wasn't the first time she had met Sai. Why didn't she remember this before?! Years ago, when she was ten, she had walked through a forest collecting herbs for Zabuza when she had spotted him!

* * *

_Flashback, Years Ago, Kiri_

_10-year-old Haku walked through the forest in the morning, wanting to pick up special flowers that were meant for herbs. She had been running low on medical ingredients, and it was time to refill her stock. Zabuza had made sure to train her medically and make her study the subject more than being a hunter-nin required, so in case he were to ever get injured, she would be able to heal him._

_She hummed happily to herself as she appreciated how beautiful morning it was. The sun was shining ever so beautifully, and the birds were singing their melodious songs, and…_

_She stopped when she saw something out of place in front of her. Walking quickly forward, she was surprised to find a person lying in the middle of the forest floor face down, seemingly dead. She put her basket down and sprinted forward, hoping for the best and that whoever was hurt would be able to be saved._

_When she slid next to the figure and flipped him over, she was surprised to find only a black-haired somewhat pale-looking boy her age. She was about to perform CPR when she realized that he was breathing._

_Confused, it took her a moment to conclude that the boy had fallen asleep on the forest floor. She giggled to herself for being so worried over nothing. She decided that she would wake the person up so that he wouldn't get a cold or anything for sleeping outside too long._

_She shook the boy a little, saying,_

"_Come on silly, it's time to wake up! You can't just sleep outside all day or you'll get sick!" she chided, smiling to herself._

_Sai woke up to find a girl shaking him. Normally he might've freaked out, but if an enemy wanted to kill him, they would've done it while he was sleeping and he wouldn't have woken up at all._

_A sat up and rubbed his eyes, letting out a big yawn._

"_What happened?" he said to himself. The last thing he remembered was training with Sasuke, who then said he had to go and get a quick drink. Sai and rested at a tree while he waited for Sasuke to come back, and…_

"_I think you fell asleep out here last night!" Haku told him, now sitting down next to him._

_Sai's attention was brought to the brunette sitting next to him. She was the one who had waked him up, right?_

"_Oh, hi." Sai greeted, remembering his manners. "My name is Sai. Thanks for waking me up, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei is getting pretty worried about me by now."_

_Haku's eyes widened for a split second. Sai! Whose sensei was Kakashi Hatake! This was the boy she had read about in the bingo book the other day! She was meeting someone in the bingo book! That's awesome!_

"_Hello, my name is Haku," she calmly said, "I was out here collecting medical flowers when I saw that you were lying asleep on the ground, so I decided to wake you up. What were you doing out here?" she asked, trying to start a conversation._

"_I was training to become a stronger ninja," Sai replied, not wanting to give much else information._

_Haku smiled at him. "That's great! I think that if your dedicated enough to be training late at night, then you're gonna be a great ninja!" she encouraged._

_Sai smiled back. "Thanks! What about you? Are you from this village, training to become a ninja?" he asked, curious about the girl._

_Haku thought about her response for a second before she realized that she had no reason to lie._

"_Yes, I'm from this village, and I am training to become a ninja. Maybe we could train together sometime!" she offered, curious to see how powerful a student of Kakashi-sensei worthy of being in the bingo book was._

"_Sure, I guess it wouldn't hurt," Sai responded after some thought. "But I'm from the Leaf Village, and I won't be staying here for long. I'm only here for a training trip anyways," he said._

_Haku smiled at him._

"_Great! How about we come here and train together this afternoon or something?" she offered again, hoping he would say yes._

"_That's sounds fine. I'm gonna head back to my sensei now, so I'll see you here later then!" Sai called out as he got up and ran back to the inn._

_Haku continued to smile as his figure faded away in the trees._

* * *

_End of Flashback_

If only she had remembered this sooner! No wonder his fighting tactics seemed so familiar. Before in Kiri, she had offered him to spar with him in the forest. She had been humiliated, to say the least. She had thought that she was talented then, but he beat her with practiced ease! However, she hadn't developed her _ice _techniques until later, so she realized that he probably wouldn't recognize her with her mask on.

While she had trained harder than ever with Zabuza, and acquired her kekke genkai ability of _ice_, she slightly feared that she would be overpowered once again.

In her moment of thought, Sai chose the opportunity to strike again with another ninjutsu.

"_Ninja Art: Ink Falcons!"_

Putting away his weapons momentarily, Sai, after completing several hand-seals, spat out ink from his mouth which flew horizontally towards Haku. After another quick seal, the ink transformed into around twenty sparrows which quickly flew towards his attacker with sharpened beaks and freaky speed.

Sai guessed that his attacker was skilled enough to dodge the incoming attacks, but he needed time to think up of a plan on how to take down his opponent with the information he already had on her.

* * *

_Elsewhere_

Both teams along with Tazuna continued to walk down the foggy path as they headed for his home to take a break for the day. After all, they had been doing a lot of walking and Tazuna wished to have full energy to start working the next day on his bridge and hopefully finish it within the week. They were in usual formation; Gaara was standing in back with Anko while Kakashi walked in front. Tazuna was in the middle while everyone else was in between to protect him. Kakashi knew that this was the best way to protect Tazuna, though he hoped that nothing would occur during the rest of the day.

Periodically looking left and right with his keen eye, Kakashi was reminded that he couldn't see much of anything with all of the fog that had fallen around him. If the attacker which set up the mist chose to attack, he was unsure that-

His thoughts were cut off when Naruto behind him quickly threw a kunai into the bushes to everyone's right, causing each person to flinch violently and prepare for attack. Trusting his student's judgment, Kakashi jumped to the side in front of the group with Anko in preparation to defend them against whoever their attacker was.

However, their attacker happened to be a while and fluffy bunny that hopped out onto the trail, frightened and dashing madly away. Everybody sighed in relief when they realized that it was just a bunny; nothing to worry about. Naruto chuckled anxiously, and began apologizing for his mistake when the gears in Kakashi's head began spinning madly.

Didn't that bunny have…_white _fur? Why would a bunny with white fur be here during the summer season? That would only mean that the bunny must have been…

Kakashi's eye flashed to the right when he saw a glance of movement in the trees.

"Everybody, DOWN!!"

With Jonin reflexes, Kakashi crouched down to the ground, hoping that his team and Anko's would do the same, and quickly. He was glad to see that Sasuke had grabbed Tazuna and dropped to the ground, and that Naruto had a safe hold of Hinata.

Moments after they were on the ground, a large zanbato flew over their heads, way to close for Naruto's comfort. Maybe he was exaggerating, but he could almost feel the large blade pass directly over his hair. He also knew Hinata had understood Kakashi's orders but he didn't want to take any chances so he grabbed her and dropped to the ground with her.

Now, looking up to where the blade had traveled, he saw that it was lodged into a nearby tree, though it was covered in mist. Standing up, he blinked, and was forced to blink again when he saw a silhouette now standing on the sword, concealed by the mist. It wasn't until the mist suddenly cleared in the area when Naruto was able to see that there was a man standing on top of the zanbato that was lodged into the tree. Upon further inspection, Naruto noted that the man was shirtless and his lower face was masked. He was wearing cargo pants as well and wore a Kiri headband on his forehead.

"Team, stay back!" Kakashi suddenly shouted at them, jumping in front of the group as well as Anko. Naruto flinched at the seriousness of his sensei's voice, but stepped back nonetheless in front of Tazuna, slightly shaking. He had never heard his sensei's voice sound anything like that…it sounded…scared!

Just then, a deep chuckling sounded out from the mysterious attacker that resonated through the entire area, which had doubled in size to reveal a large lake farther up the path. Naruto was unaware of how his katana had gotten into his hands, but he now noticed that he was trembling in place. Taking a quick glance at his teammates, he noticed that Hinata was trembling as well, and that Sasuke looked like he had seen a ghost. He wasn't able to see Gaara or Kairi, who were behind him, so he swallowed and continued looking forward, not wanting to take his eyes off of the attacker. For some reason, Naruto felt like the man was intensely powerful, even though he had never before seen him.

"Kakashi Hatake," the man sounded out in a low and terrifying voice. "It's good to finally meet you after hearing so much about your abilities."

Kakashi nodded slightly, attempting to remain his cool. He had expected to face a strong ninja, and he had even told everyone else that they would, but what he did not expect was to face up against one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist! Each and every member was the finest ninja Kiri could produce that knew the skills of the blade, and each member was S-ranked, renowned for their power. Even though Kakashi had a fellow Jonin to defend himself, he was unsure if he would be able to face up against such an opponent.

"Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist. I can't say that I am pleased to meet you," Kakashi spoke out, his brain rapidly thinking of how he would fight the swordsman.

This response caused another chuckle to escape the runaway Mist nin.

"Hah! I'm hurt!" he called back out, still not even fully facing the group, almost as if he didn't think that any of them were threats. "But now is not the time to discuss our feelings. I have come here for the bridge builder. Give him to me and there will be only one death today," he demanded, his eyes boring into Kakashi.

Kakashi visibly tightened, and stood up complete straight as opposed to his usual relaxed position. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen," he responded. "Perhaps if you would have asked before you attempted to behead us all."

Zabuza's eyes narrowed down and the air around the area immediately changed. Naruto's grip slipped on his katana and he nearly dropped it as he found himself in a cold sweat. The amount of chakra…the amount of _killer intent_, as Kakashi had described before, that this man was now releasing was unbearable! It felt like…like he didn't even belong in the area, and that he could do nothing against the man.

Turning to his side, Naruto noted that Sasuke had fell to one knee and that tears were falling down Hinata's shaking face. They too were not faring any better against whatever technique Zabuza was emitting.

Then, the Mist's nin's eyes turned to Anko, who was clutching a kunai in front of her.

"Ah? And who might you be? I make it a point to know who I kill before I kill them," Zabuza pointed out, looking in her direction.

"Anko Mitarashi!" she shouted back, trying to act more confident than she sounded. She too had heard of the powers of the Seven Swordsmen, and she knew for a fact that she wasn't at that level. She could only hope that Kakashi was, or that together they could take him down.

Zabuza nodded. "Very well." He crouched down and grabbed the handle of his sword, and suddenly disappeared from sight.

Kakashi jumped back in a fighting stance and quickly pulled out his own kunai, his eyes darting back and forth.

"Hinata!" he yelled out to the girl behind him. "Byakugan! Now!"

Hinata's eyes widened at the comment and it took her a moment to bring up her shaking hands to form the correct seal. "B-B-Byakugan!" she called out, her eyes paling and veins appearing on her head.

She looked around herself, and frowned when she realized that she couldn't see where he was. Surprisingly enough however, she was able to see Sai quite a bit away fighting another attacker altogether by himself! Zabuza was moving around the group in circles far too quickly for her to pick up his exact location.

"H-He's moving around too quickly!" she replied back to her sensei. "B-But, I can see Sai fighting another person o-our age about a half mile to my right!"

Kakashi's eye widened at this, as well as Anko's. Two attackers? But Hinata said that the person seemed to be the same age as her…did Zabuza have a young co-worker, or possibly an apprentice?

"Kairi!" Anko barked, turning to look at the silver-haired girl who was clutching on to Gaara in fear. "Go and back up Sai! Gaara, stay near the bridge builder and protect him with your sand! You know what to do!"

Kairi nodded fearfully and let go of Gaara, quickly dashing off in the direction that Hinata had pointed to. Gaara nodded as well, and quickly flew through a couple of hand-seals, ending with his palms slamming together.

"_Sphere of Sand!_"

Sand quickly erupted from the scabbard like gourd on Gaara's back and rapidly surrounded Tazuna, who was slightly surprised. Then, it grew upward and completely incased the man in a hard shield of sand, protecting him on all sides.

"_Interesting…sand techniques,_" Zabuza's voice emanated from nowhere. "_Let's see how strong it really is!_"

Unbeknownst to Kakashi or Anko, Zabuza appeared directly behind Team 7 and in front of Gaara, with his sword held high in the air. "Let's end this quickly!"

Throwing his massive zanbato down, Zabuza was about to slice through Gaara and into the shield of sand when surprisingly to him, sand automatically shot up in front of Gaara to block his attack.

Gaara was surprised at the sheer strength of the man when parts of the large of the large sword began breaking through his shield of sand, inches away from his face. Zabuza smiled evilly underneath his mask and began laughing maniacally when his sword began cutting through the shield of sand, with him leaning down on it with his muscles bulging to push it through. Gaara was about to jump away in hopes of saving himself when a katana erupted from Zabuza's chest, causing him to gasp and shoot his head upward.

Naruto, who was holding the katana, pulled it out quickly from the place where Zabuza's heart was located, and hopped backwards. However, when he looked down at his katana, he was surprised to find it not covered in blood, but instead it was covered in…water?

The rest of Zabuza's clone exploded in water as the technique disrupted, leaving Gaara and Team 7 alone for the moment. Gaara's sand eventually fell to the ground around him giving him view of the situation, and he nodded at Naruto when he recognized that he broke through the water clone.

Kakashi cursed to himself as he held back his shunshin which would have been a second too late. He had been shocked by Zabuza's stealth and speed, and how he managed to appear in the middle of the entire group without anyone noticing until it was too late. Had Gaara not had his automatic sand to protect him, or had it been anyone else, Zabuza would've cut right through them!

"_Pesky brat! I've seem to forgotten that Kakashi isn't the only one here who has a little talent. Very well. I'll just have to kill each and everyone here until the bridge builder is left alone!_"

Hinata's eyes widened and she motioned to the lake a distance in front of them.

"H-He's on the lake!" she shouted out, pointing in front of the group. Surely enough, the entirety of the mist cleared away to reveal Zabuza standing on the surface of the lake, finishing hand-seals.

"_Water Release: Water Fang Bullet!_"

Several tendrils of water formed around Zabuza had darted out of the lake and straight toward the group of ninja. Thinking quickly, Kakashi flew through several hand-seals, ending on the snake-seal, spat out mud from his mouth on the earth in front of him.

"_Earth Release: Mud Wall Jutsu!_"

Instantly, a large wall of hardened mud sprang up from the ground, completely protecting the entire group from the tendrils of water. The water missiles drilled harmlessly into the wall, not penetrating but instead bouncing off. However, it also blocked the view of their attacker, and Kakashi knew that that could be fatal for them. Ending the technique, the wall of mud fell back down into the earth. But like Kakashi had feared, Zabuza was no longer standing on the lake when their view had returned.

"Too late!" a voice sounded from behind him, causing Kakashi's eye to widen. Zabuza threw his zanbato downwards, effectively slicing through Kakashi's body vertically, earning the gasps of everyone behind him. However, to Zabuza's dismay, Kakashi merely fell into a puddle of water when the clone of himself dispersed.

Zabuza began chuckling when he felt the touch of cold metal being pressed against his neck. Kakashi, who was now standing behind Zabuza, glared at the man with both his regular eye as well as his Sharingan eye which was staring at him with fierce intensity.

"Ha! So this is the power of the famous Copy Ninja Kakashi! You managed to copy my Mizu Bunshin technique while I wasn't even looking at you!" he laughed, for some reason not at all dismayed that there was a kunai pressed against his neck. "But it'll take more than that to beat me!"

Kakashi's eyes widened as he jumped in the air the moment before the large sword pierced through his back. Zabuza's clone dispersed as the sword went through him as well, and the real Zabuza who was holding his sword out looked up in the air and began forming his own hand-seals.

"Not so fast!" Anko yelled out, appearing in front of Zabuza in the air. She launched out her foot, attempting to slam it into Zabuza's head, but she was a moment too late and Zabuza crouched down, bending his knees before the blow could connect, still continuing with his hand-seals.

"_Water Release: Tearing Torrent_"

Holding out his palm, water began to quickly spiral in Zabuza's palm. He then threw his hand out forward, slamming it into Anko's chest, who used her arms to brace the attack. However, when Zabuza made contact, the water burst out of his hand like a jet, propelling Anko painfully into the air and into Kakashi.

Kakashi grunted as he grabbed Anko in the air and fell back down to the ground, landing smoothly. He quickly let her go, and she stumbled back up to her feet, breathing heavily and water running down her body.

Sasuke frowned as he glared down his enemy with his level two Sharingan eyes. He was supposed to be able to read the hand-seals of his opponent at his level, but Zabuza moved so fast that even his Sharingan couldn't pick it up. He assumed that Kakashi could, because Kakashi was more experienced with his doujutsu and he had managed to copy Zabuza's water clone technique before. The Sharingan was supposed to be able to instantly recognize a jutsu from the user with the first seal that they make, and Kakashi was renowned for not only knowing what's coming so that he could dodge it, but he could actually instantly copy the technique himself and perform it at the same time as his opponent, if not earlier. Sasuke's respect for his Jonin sensei rose much higher when he realized how hard it actually was to do that. He couldn't even read Zabuza's seals!

Naruto frowned as well when he realized how dangerous his opponent was before him. Anko was a Jonin, as well as Kakashi, and it seemed as if they were evenly matched in the battle! And when Zabuza had appeared behind them, Naruto didn't know until he heard him speak. The man was so fast and silent! He turned to look at Hinata who looked like she was doing all she could to not break out crying. This man alone let out twice as much killing intent that all of the cloud ninja who had tried to kidnap Hinata combined!

When Anko landed, she threw out her arm, and out of her jacket several snakes came out of it, flying towards Zabuza. The Mist nin was unaffected by this attack and with a swing of his large sword he quickly chopped up each and every snake that went towards him.

This however was more than enough of an opening for Kakashi, who appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai in his hand. However, with amazing speed and strength, Zabuza completely reversed the momentum of his sword, and he quickly spun, slicing at Kakashi who was forced to duck in order to avoid decapitation. While he was underneath Zabuza, he thrust his kunai upward at Zabuza in an attempt to gut him in the stomach. However, the hardened Anbu from the mist was able to jump backward to avoid the basic attack.

In the middle of the air, Zabuza turned around to see a large stream of fire headed toward him, courtesy of Anko. Thinking quickly, he flew through his own hand-seals, calling out,

"_Water Release: Giant Wave Crash!_"

Zabuza brought his seal to his mouth and spat out an intense amount of water, summing a wave of it in front of him to dispel the stream of fire. When he landed, he stood up tall, not even breathing hard, between the two Jonin who were staring him down with fire in their eyes.

He was about to comment on their inability to attack him when he realized that his own feet were suddenly incased in…sand? Looking down, he saw that his body was slowly sinking into a pile of sand that had appeared underneath him. He quickly spun his head toward the red-headed kid from before who sure enough was kneeling down with one hand palming the ground while his other was forming a seal.

But before he could do anything, Kakashi and Anko took advantage with his inability to move and flew through hand-seals together, shouting out at the same time,

"_Fire Release: Flame Flower!"_

"_Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Missile!_"

Anko and Kakashi spat out large streams of fire toward the immobile Zabuza whose eyes widened before he was immediately engulfed in the large flames. Both Jonin maintained their streams of fire in hopes of killing the attacker, but they were shocked when they started seeing steam rise up from where he was standing. Suddenly, a large voice boomed out of out of the fire.

"_Water Release: Giant Waterfall Jutsu!" _

The fire continued pouring out on Zabuza, but before it could do any real damage, water, seemingly appearing from nowhere, began to spiral around him, creating a _large _shield. The fire was pushed away by the water, and where the two connected large clouds of steam began to rise in the air.

Realizing that neither of them could overpower this large attack, both Kakashi and Anko cut off their fire releases to save their chakra. They didn't realize their mistake until the water surrounding Zabuza began to spiral out of control. Inside the circle, Zabuza the pushed his palms forward, causing a massive jet of water, the size of a waterfall, to rush toward the direction of the Kakashi and Team 7 and Gaara behind him.

_Crap! _Kakashi thought, jumping high into the air to avoid the blast of water. Team 7 and Gaara on the other hand froze in fear at the massive wave of water that began heading towards them. Gaara was the first to recover from the initial shock of the attack and flew through his own hand-seals, shouting out,

"_Sand Tsunami!_"

Sand began quickly pouring out of his gourds at amazing speeds, and it began to form a wall in front of them. Team 7 quickly recognized the technique and jumped behind Gaara to avoid being in the middle of such large attacks. The sand quickly grew until it was a gigantic wall of sand in front of them, and the water from Zabuza's jutsu collided with it, creating a massive pulse of energy to cover the area. Gaara visibly flinched and threw his palms into the ground, trying his best to hold the wall in front of him. The Sand Tsunami was probably his strongest current attack, but he was using it as a makeshift defense wall at the moment to protect everyone around him. Some of the water from Zabuza's attack began to splash over Gaara's wall, but it protected them for the most part, and after about thirty seconds, Gaara allowed his wall to return to his endless gourd after recognizing that Zabuza's attack had ceased.

In the trees, Kakashi's eye's narrowed when he realized the danger of this battle. _We have to move Zabuza further out away from the group! One of his attacks could misfire and easily kill them!_

* * *

_Elsewhere_

Sai pressed his back against the tree, breathing heavily, waiting to attack his opponent. Whoever he was, Sai's attacker was talented beyond belief, and had shut him out in textbook style. He was used to fight rather…eccentric people, such as Gaara, Kairi or Naruto, who used strange ways to battle. Gaara would use his sand, Kairi would use her speed, and Naruto would avoid him with his _wind _style combat and strike him when he was off balance.

But everything his attacker did was textbook perfect, and the margin of error in this fight was zero. Every time the two confronted, each attack was a death blow. Sai knew that if he failed to block just one of her attacks, it would mean the death of him. But likewise for his attacker, Sai only stuck crippling or death blows.

Taking a deep breath, Sai prepared to jump out onto the battlefield again. He had realized that his opponent must be a sensor type, as he could sense wherever Sai was if he tried to hide for a moment. Running around the tree, Sai grabbed several kunai adorned with explosive tags on them and threw them to where his attacker was currently standing and also breathing heavily.

To his surprise, his opponent flew through hand-seals at blinding speed and when he finished, he blew out an icy mist from his hands, which enveloped the kunai mid-air. Instead of exploding when they reached her, they merely fell to the ground harmlessly and shattered. Sai frowned and charged at him again, hoping to tire him and get a winning blow when his opponent slipped up.

Haku dodged the initial punch by side-jumping with the slightest possible margins, following up her dodge with a quick upward jab with a senbon in her hand. Haku always carried a near infinite amount of senbon with her, as she could replicate them to her will, which was lucky for her because she had used many of them so far in the battle. Sai, like she expected, avoided the attack by slapping her hand to the side, following up with a punch to her face, which she avoided by leaning her head to the right. Everything seemed like slow motion to her as the battle continued, each of them dodging and blocking attacks and issuing their own.

Sai eventually went for the leg sweep, hoping to catch him off balance, he was surprised when he connected with his attackers legs, sending him flipping in the air. Unfortunately though, the assassin recovered in air by turning his fall into a handspring and flipping backwards several times.

The two were separated by about ten meters and they stared each other down, waiting for the other to make a move. Sai didn't necessarily want to use any other jutsu unless there was an opening, because he didn't know how long this battle would last and he wanted to have the upper hand by having more chakra. He assumed his opponent was thinking the same-

Sai gasped as a blur appeared next to his opponent until it solidified, revealing his teammate Kairi with her fist pulled back. The masked hunter nin was only able to turn his head in time to look straight into the purple eyes of his new opponent.

Kairi's fist connected with Haku in a satisfying thud which sent her flying backwards, rolling on the ground until she skidded to a stop. During the process, the hunter nin's mask flew off behind Haku, revealing hair which began to flow out behind her.

_He's…a girl?_ Sai didn't know why he thought his attacker had been male; he was somewhat shocked to find himself surprised at this discovery. But, before he could identify her face, the hunter nin quickly picked her mask back up and hastily placed it over her face, once again concealing her identity.

Kairi quickly jumped back toward Sai, breathing heavily after running for such a long distance.

"Another older assassin is attacking our teams!" she hurriedly said to him, causing his eyes to widen in shock. "His name is Zabuza, and he's really strong! I was told to come here and back you up because Hinata saw you fighting!"

Haku frowned beneath her mask as she analyzed the new battle that was starting. Before she had been somewhat evenly matched against Sai, but now the odds were two to one! Not only that, but she didn't know the abilities of Sai's teammate, but Haku guessed that Sai was currently debriefing her own talents to Kairi as he quietly whispered to her. She rubbed her jaw under her mask and cursed herself for not being able to dodge attack. One thing was for sure; that girl was fast and she hit hard!

Kairi nodded when Sai finished telling her everything that had happened in the battle thus far. Apparently, this hunter girl had a special ability to use _ice _attacks, which Kairi had never heard of. Not only that, but she was really good at it as well as water attacks and taijutsu. Sai also told her to watch out for the senbon that the girl apparently had a large amount of.

Kairi then slapped her hands together, unlocking her own bloodline limit. Several of her chakra gates inside of her began to open, allowing massive amounts of chakra to naturally flow through them. The outlines of her purple eyes darkened and narrowed as she zeroed in on her opponent. Haku, sensing the powerful chakra coming from the girl, readied herself for attack. She hadn't used her ultimate move yet, her ice mirrors, and she wondered if she would have to if this girl proved to be a large threat. Perhaps she-

Her thoughts were cut off as Kairi dashed toward Haku at near shunshin speed, with her arm back once again to punch her. This time, however, Haku was prepared and she feinted to the side, avoiding the forward punch. Kairi had been expecting this, and she used her own momentum to bring her left leg around in a roundhouse kick. Haku was able to duck underneath this, but her hair still blew to the side with the sheer closeness and power of Kairi's kick, causing her to frown deeply under her mask.

While Kairi was recovering from her own kick, Haku shot out her leg in a sweep, hoping to knock the white-haired girl off of her feet. Her plans were ruined when Kairi used a somersault to avoid being touched. Meanwhile, Sai was pouring his own ink bottle into the very ground itself, preparing for a future attack.

Somersaulting some more to gain distance from the enemy, Kairi rounded off to her feet and formed her fighting stance once more. Taking a deep breath, she pulled out her two tonfa which she had been practicing with vigorously. Spinning them around with practiced ease, she formed a new stance before charging once more at the intruder.

* * *

_Lake_

Zabuza was currently in the center of the lake, with both Anko and Kakashi surrounding him. He too was now breathing slightly heavily after facing the two talented Jonin. In fact, he hadn't had so much fun in such a long time! It was disappointing that he would have to end it so soon.

On cue, Kakashi charged at him with a kunai in hand, preparing to attack. Anko wasn't far behind to react, and she too came charging at Zabuza. Smiling to himself, Zabuza flew through several hand-seals, preparing his victory. Kakashi's eyes widened, recognizing the seals, and he quickly reached Zabuza before the man finished slashing his kunai with amazing speed, but Zabuza simply fell _into _the water, causing Kakashi to swing at nothing. But before Kakashi could regain control of his body's momentum, Zabuza rose out of the water behind him in a standing position, having finished his seals.

"_Water Release: __Water Prison Jutsu!"_

Kakashi turned around with a shocked look in his eyes, and attempted to jump away, but he was too late. Water attached to his leg and held him in place while more water began to enwrap him completely until he was captured in a sphere of circulating water. Kakashi swore under his breath when he realized that he now had no way to escape. He could only rely on Anko to get him out of the prison which was known to be as hard as steel.

Anko charged forward, preparing to easily take out Zabuza before he could kill Kakashi in the sphere with his sword. Zabuza may be incredibly strong, but he couldn't take on a Jonin with one arm. Flying through several hand-seals, Anko was preparing to summon a quick and highly poisonous snake out of her sleeves when water suddenly began to enwrap her, grabbing her legs and holding her in place. She turned her head around fearfully to find another Zabuza standing there with his hand held up to her, laughing maniacally and dripping in water from coming out of the lake.

"_Water Release: __Water Prison Jutsu!"_

Milliseconds later, water completely enwrapped her, not allowing her to move at all.

"Ha! You fell for my bait!" Zabuza leered behind her. "You should have thought through your plan before charging! You didn't think that I could have made a water clone while I was underwater!"

Anko swore to herself as well, realizing that she had just most likely lost the mission as well as the lives of everyone around her. The smart thing to do in her case would have been to run away with the Genin and Tazuna and live to fight another day and complete the mission. Instead, Zabuza was now free to kill her and Kakashi, and kill all of the Genin as well as Tazuna.

Kakashi was thinking along the same lines when a thought suddenly came to his head.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata, Gaara!" he shouted out to them, "take Tazuna at get out of here! Now! Get Kairi and run! His water clones can't walk far away from him and he has to stay on the lake here until we drown!"

All of the Genin's eyes widened when they realized the depth of the situation. Zabuza had both Anko and Kakashi in a death sentence and once he killed them he would come after them!

"What are you waiting for!?" Anko now shouted out, projecting her voice with chakra so that it could be heard, "Run!"

Naruto looked back at his friends to see their faces and whether or not they would run like their sensei instructed. He wasn't surprised to find everyone rooted to the ground, whether in fear or rebellion.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto swallowed and spoke up to his teammates. "We have to save sensei," he quietly commanded, reactivating his Rinnegan eyes which had been deactivated previously. "We either win here as a team, or die here as one!"

He was pleased to see Sasuke and Gaara nod, as well as Hinata after she shook herself out of her trance of fear. "But we need a plan! We have the advantage of Zabuza being immobile on the water, which we should use to our benefit! Gaara…can you use the sand on the bottom of the lake?" Naruto asked his red-headed friend, thinking of his plan.

Gaara unfortunately shook his head. "It's much harder to move sand that hasn't been infused with my chakra, and I won't be able to move my chakra through all of the water to control it," he sadly said, cursing his momentary inability.

Naruto nodded, beginning to think of something else. After a moment of closing his eyes, he opened them, with energy sparkling through his Rinnegan.

"Alright. I think I have a plan."

______________________________________________________________________________  
_Moments Later_

Zabuza smirked as he saw that his little opponents had finished discussing whatever they were planning to do. He had thought of merely creating a water clone and sending it to kill them, but he decided that it would me much more amusing for him to destroy whatever plan they would come up with. After all, he had to wait until Kakashi and Anko drowned anyway. His sphere of water was as strong as steel, and if he wanted to stab them he would have to lower its strength momentarily, which could give the two time to block him or escape.

Just then, Naruto snapped around and flicked about five kunai attached with explosive tags on them. Zabuza's eyes widened at the simplicity of the attack, but he considered that it would be effective for most, because most ninja choose to dodge explosives rather than defend against them. However, Zabuza was knowledgeable of more than a few one-handed seals; he made it a habit to know the one-handed seals for some of his favorite normal jutsu.

"_Water Release: Water Wave!_"

The original Zabuza threw his left arm into the air, causing a massive explosion to occur in the water which caused it to fly high into the air as well, effectively blocking out the explosive tags. By added his own chakra to the water, he made sure that the kunai wouldn't just cut through the water, but stay in it, like a heavier substance. When the tags detonated, all that resulted was water wave he had summoned exploded into vapor and water which flew in every direction, momentarily blocking off Zabuza's view. He frowned underneath his bandages as he used his free hand to protect himself from the water which was heavily splashing down on him and his clones.

He shook his head free of the water, his eyes darting back to the location of his attackers, and they immediately widened when he only saw the sand boy with red hair standing protectively in front of Tazuna.

"_Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu!_"

Zabuza's head snapped around as he looked in shock at the large fireball the Uchiha had created which was already on a path headed directly toward him. He laughed however, and using the same one-handed seals he had used before, he shouted back to the flame,

"_Water Release: Water Wave!_"

Once again, he swung his hand up in the air and a large wave of water erupted from the lake, shielding him, as well as Kakashi, from the large ball which was extinguished in the water. The lake itself began to waver and bend from the water being extracted from it, and Zabuza once more had to shield his eyes from the amount of water which fell down on him from his own wave.

"Ha! Is that the best you brats can do?!" he called out, laughing loudly, while facing the direction of Sasuke who had just used the _fire _attack. "It'll take more than that to-"

Zabuza was shocked again when a splashing sound erupted from in front of him, causing him to turn his head back to his front just in time to see Naruto bursting out of the water directly in front of him with a swirling ball of chakra in his hands; the Rasengan.

Realistically, Naruto would've used one of his other favorite techniques, the Exploding Shadow Clone, but if the attack worked, the water prison holding Kakashi would drop and his sensei would be enveloped in the blast as well. He also would have used a _wind _influenced Rasengan, but he couldn't maintain his wind element with his chakra while propelling himself underwater.

Not that the Rasengan wouldn't do the job that Naruto wanted. The blonde couldn't help but inwardly smirk at the look of shock that was on Zabuza's face as his Rasengan was heading toward it inches away from him. Whoever this guy was, he should learn _never _to underestimate-

Just as quickly as Naruto had jumped out of the water, Zabuza's free hand flashed up with most likely even faster speed to snatch Naruto's wrist with the Rasengan before the attack could connect. Zabuza laughed loudly once again as Naruto attempted to use both of his hands to push his Rasengan closer to Zabuza's face, which was now oddly illuminated with chakra as his hair blew due to the force, but gained no ground, even with his chakra. Zabuza's large forearm and bicep muscles were enough to easily push back Naruto's well thought out attack and keep it a safe distance away from his face, though the blonde still persisted on grabbing Zabuza's arm in attempts to push the Rasengan into him.

"HAHAHA! Nice try punk! Do you know who I am?! I'm Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist!"

Inside his prison, Kakashi's eyes turned to Naruto who now had a hold of Zabuza's arm, trying desperately to push his Rasengan into him. Naruto's plan was in fact sound, but his student miscalculated the speed of Zabuza. However, Kakashi allowed himself to smile as his Sharingan eye detected more chakra underneath his enemy.

Behind Zabuza the water erupted once more, though this time, Hinata, carrying her bow staff with her came out. With a look of pure and fierce determination in her Byakugan eyes, Hinata pushed her chakra into her staff, and held it above her head, preparing to swing down on Zabuza's arm that was holding her sensei in it.

Moments before she began to throw her arms down, and just as Zabuza realized that Naruto was holding his free arm down now with a smile on his face, sand appeared beside Hinata, covering her body. For that split second, Hinata was confused as to why Gaara had decided to join the battle, but suddenly, a large force of water hit the sand, breaking though it seconds later and blasting Hinata away with a scream of pain coming from her.

The clone of Zabuza who had performed his jutsu smirked in satisfaction as Hinata skidded across the surface of the water like a pebble before landing painfully on solid ground. The original Zabuza smirked as well before launching Naruto back on land with a powerful kick to the Genin's midsection. Sasuke cursed as he ran along the perimeter of the lake to go and make sure that Hinata was all right, keeping an eye out for any attack that Zabuza could send for him. By the looks of how she was struggling to her feet and still clutching on to her staff, it seemed as if she was okay.

"I have to give you some credit," Zabuza spoke in a much quieter voice than he had before, looking down toward Kakashi. "Your students aren't as bad as I thought. Their teamwork together is flawless. The only thing that would've impressed me more is if they had listened to you and run away, for at least they would have had a chance to live somewhat longer than they are now."

Team 7's Genin along with Gaara now stood panting in front of Tazuna, weary after failing from getting Zabuza to release Kakashi. Hinata seemed to have gotten the worst of it as she had been hit hard from the blast of water Zabuza's clone had made, though because of Gaara's protective sand, the damage was much less than what it could have been.

"Alright," Naruto said, after catching his own breath, "we need to think of a new plan. I hadn't taken into account Zabuza's clone being so quick last time, but this time I think that-"

"You think I'm gonna give you brats more time to make another plan?" Zabuza roared back from the lake, causing all of them to fearfully turn to him. "Ha! This isn't some lame TV show where the villain goes through a flashback while you guys are making a plan!"

With several seal with his one hand, Zabuza pointed it at the water in front of him. Immediately, the water began to tremble until it quickly began to rise into the air, forming a flowing silhouette of water in the shape of Zabuza, until it solidified, forming a perfect replica of the demon.

Not needing any orders, the clone swung around its massive sword for a moment before charging directly at the unsuspecting Genin.

Gaara was the first to react and threw his hands forward, causing a wave of sand to fly in front of them and toward the clone, who surprisingly drilled through it like a torpedo using his zanbato in front of him. Zabuza landed smoothly and continued on his direct path toward the small group.

Naruto cursed at his own ignorance in thinking that he would have time to do something else and think of a new plan. "Get ready!" he called out to his teammates who quickly moved beside him, preparing to defend against water attack the clone had planned out. Naruto knew from his own clone experience that the clone of a person only held so much power, and the more clones there were, the less strength they would have. And since Zabuza had already made another water clone, the one attacking them couldn't be more than half of Zabuza's original strength.

With the help of Rinnegan, Naruto had an easier time tracking the clone's oncoming movements, and he was sure Sasuke and Hinata could as well. When Zabuza finally neared them and raised his sword to swing down, Naruto was able to spring forward in attempts to stab the clone's midsection with his katana. The clone was able to read the steps however, and he side stepped just in time to avoid the attack. However, Sasuke was right in front of him and began to throw a flurry of punches and kicks, keeping the clone on the defensive.

Growing aggravated, Zabuza allowed one of Sasuke's punches to land, hitting him in the chest. But, instead of exploding into water, the clone merely grunted in pain and knocked Sasuke away since he was off balance.

The clone's eyes widened when Hinata ran from behind him, and he turned around, looking her dead in the eyes, causing her attack to falter slightly. Before Hinata could thrust her palm forward, Zabuza disappeared, reappearing behind her, raising his right arm high with his sword in his hand.

But before Sasuke, Naruto, or Zabuza could react, Hinata snapped around and thrust her fingers forward, striking Zabuza in his right shoulder.

The clone cursed, and dropped his zanbato to the ground, his entire right arm going limp. Hinata's victory was short lived however when Zabuza retaliated by kicking her in the chest, sending her flying away.

Naruto smiled when he realized that the clone's strongest asset, its sword, was no longer a part of the picture when it dispersed into water after it fell to the ground. Growling in annoyance, the clone rubbed its arm, glaring down the young Hyuuga as she slowly rose from the ground, dusting herself off from the hard fall. But before he could retaliate, Naruto decided to go on the offensive, slapping his palms together, causing a violent wind to spring to life in front of him, blowing forward powerfully and knocking back Zabuza into a tree.

Grunting in pain, Zabuza was about to issue his own attacks when suddenly four kunai flew past him out of his reach, with wires attached to them. But before he could do anything, the wires rapidly enclosed on him, impaling the kunai in the back of the tree, effectively tying down the clone. The clone attempted to free itself in vain; the wires that Sasuke had thrown were thin but strong steel, curiously of Tenten's father, and it was near impossible to break them by brute strength alone.

Not wasting any time, Naruto flung his katana forward in a chakra enforced throw, causing it to whirl through the air before it was lodged into the center of the clones chest, penetrating deep through it and up to the hilt in the tree as well. Before the water clone could even curse at Naruto, it dispersed into water, leaving only the trembling katana behind.

Naruto and the rest of them sighed in relief, but quickly huddled together again after Naruto retrieved his katana.

"We don't have time!" Sasuke told to them. "We just have to attack Zabuza before he creates another clone!"

Zabuza looked at the Genin in disgust before turning down to his current prisoner. "Once again, your students surprise me, Hatake," he hissed out behind his bandages. "I'll make sure to kill them this time!"

Nodding, Team 7 turned and charged quickly towards the immobile Zabuza, leaving Gaara behind to protect the bridge builder. However, before they could even reach the edge of the water, their eyes widened in dismay when another water clone was created, and headed toward them. They didn't have time! If this kept repeating, either they would grow weak first or Kakashi and Anko would drown!

'_Clones! Now!_' Naruto thought out to his Rinnegan clones who were watching the fight from the perimeter. He was planning to use them on the first Zabuza clone, but decided to save them for later in case they were in more need of them.

Now, while the new water clone was charging at them, Naruto's own Rinnegan clones threw a dozen explosive kunai down towards the water clone, who, though surprised, managed to dodge most of them by using his large sword. However, the clone was immediately dispersed when the tags simultaneously exploded, filling the air with a large cloud of smoke.

"Now!" Naruto called out to his teammates beside him. "Attack with everything you have!"

The three of them charged through the smoke cloud with all of their speed, and onto the lake where Zabuza's eyes were still wide, his mind reeling trying to figure out how his clone had been destroyed. Naruto emerged first, running on top of the water with his Rinnegan eyes blazing and his katana held at his side.

This time however, Naruto chose to head toward the water clone that was holding Anko prison. After all, the water clone was weaker than the original, so he assumed that it would be much easier to take it out than Zabuza. Jumping in the air, he flew above the water, until he began landing down on the clone. But, the water clone had snapped out of his stupor and pulled out a kunai with his free hand, blocking Naruto's strike before it could connect.

However, the clone was unable to defend itself when Sasuke appeared behind it, slashing at his hand, completely cutting it off and ending the jutsu that kept Anko prison. Water began to rapidly pour out of the clones wound and its image began to waver, but before it could do any more damage, Hinata jumped in front of it, sending a powerful Jyuuken Empty Palm to its chest, blasting it backwards and allowing it to disperse into water.

Anko fell onto her hands and knees as she began to gasp for the breath she had been denied for so long. Shaking her head, she only gave the Team a quick nod of thanks before pointing them over to the sidelines with Gaara. Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata all nodded, panting as well, and jumped out of her way, heading back for safety.

Anko rolled her shoulders, still deeply panting, trying to catch her breath before she charged at Zabuza. Closing her eyes for a moment, she collected her thoughts, and when they snapped open, she flew through hand-seals before slamming her palm into the water itself.

Zabuza, who was currently holding Kakashi, began to wonder what Anko had done, when suddenly a large dark green snake flew out of the water in front of him, mouth open and fangs bearing, ready to bite. Zabuza was once again able to stop such an attack by grabbing the snake's neck before it could bite him, using his free hand, but before he could do anything else, another snake came out of the first ones mouth, enwrapping Zabuza before completely crushing him in its amazingly powerful bind.

Instead of receiving the gross but relieving sound of the breaking and crushing of bones, Anko's attack was rewarded with a splash of water as Zabuza was forced to use a substitution with the water around him to avoid his death. However, the result of this substitution was that Kakashi was released. Falling to the water in a similar manner to Anko, Kakashi's convulsed as he began rasping for air, barely able to use chakra to hold him above the water.

Eventually Kakashi was able to breathe at a normal pace, and when he stood up, he nodded and Anko and then looked back to his Team, who were still standing protectively around Tazuna. "Good job, everyone," he called out to them, managing to eye-smile at the moment. "I thought that we were done for!"

"Don't worry. You still are!"

Kakashi flinched as Zabuza's deep voice was projected around the area, and once again a heavy mist began to fall around them, concealing Naruto's group, as well as Anko, who quickly shuffled over to Kakashi in order to back him up.

"This fight has only just begun!"

______________________________________________________________________________  
_Elsewhere_

Haku landed on a tree and quickly threw her back onto the trunk, concealing her from view at the moment. Sai and Kairi were no joke, and together, they were slowly overpowering her. She always preferred to let her opponents live, and miss their vital points by the slightest margins necessary, but she would soon have to use her Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors, or even her Dragon's Breath, which would most likely resolve with their deaths. But it wasn't like they were giving her much of a choice. Sai would use his ninjutsu from afar while Kairi would overwhelm her with her speed.

Haku's eyes widened when Kairi suddenly appeared on the branch in front of her, her eyes blazing with passion.

'_I have no choice,"_ Haku thought, already flying threw her hand-seals.

"_Ice Release: Dragon's Breath!_"

Like before, Haku brought her hand-seal to her mouth, and after a deep inhale, she blew out a quick and powerful torrent of icy frost, which propelled itself quickly toward Kairi, who merely used her forearms to defend herself. Mistake.

The ice quickly enveloped Kairi, as well as the tree around and behind her, and Kairi was soon swallowed completely in the frost, until she was completely…frozen.

Putting her hands down and halting her breath, Haku looked at Kairi with sadness in her eyes behind her mask, which was still holding her arms in front of her, frozen solid with a sheet of ice covering her. The tree as well had turned icy blue with a sheet of ice over it as it too was in the in the path of Haku's Dragon's Breath.

Sai hopped up next to Kairi, using chakra so that he wouldn't slip, and looked at his friend with fear in his eyes.

"W-What did you do to her?!" he screamed at Haku, already knowing the answer however much he hated it.

"The same thing I did to the tree around her," Haku calmly stated, pulling out another one of her senbon. Instead of aiming it at them, she merely threw it at the trunk of the tree covered in ice that Sai and Kairi were standing on. To his surprise, when the senbon connected, the tree completely shattered, causing them to fall down to the forest floor. Midflight, Sai began to remember the attacker's words. The same thing as the tree…

He immediately grabbed onto Kairi's cold body before it hit the ground, and landed lightly, jumping away to avoid the rest of the shattered tree debris. Panting heavily, Sai looked on in fear at the frozen girl that he was holding in his arms. How could he free her? If he tried to break the ice, she would shatter like the tree. And if he tried to melt her…

His thoughts stopped when Kairi's eyes began to move from within her own ice sculpture. Her purple eyes darted around, finally landing on Sai, who sighed, feeling completely relieved.

'_She's not completely frozen! That means I can break her out.'_

Taking a risk, he pulled out a kunai from his pouch and used it to quickly break off the ice around Kairi, feeling relieved that it easily shattered off of her, leaving her perfectly find, aside from shivering and gasping for breath.

Haku deeply frowned as she stared down at her opponents, one who should have been dead. _'She must have covered her arms and body with chakra to shield herself from the blast', _she thought to herself. '_It seems that my attack still isn't as strong as it should be. _He _could freeze anything or anybody who he used that technique on. I'm so far behind…'_

Snapping herself out of her memories, she jumped down to the clearing below her, around twenty meters in front of Sai and Kairi. She was about to attack them when Kairi was still recovering when she felt a sudden flash of chakra, which she recognized from Zabuza.

_He's calling for me! Zabuza!_

She turned her head to the side in the direction where she felt the specific chakra come from, her mind wandering. Perhaps the battle her sensei was fighting was becoming more than he had wished to handle as well. _Fine. I'll just end this battle quickly then. Hopefully, this will work…_

Flying through a new set of hand-seals, she finished and kneeled on the ground, thrusting her palms into the ground. Two trails of ice came out from her two hands, darting out in opposite directions on the ground. The trails of ice turned around, quickly surrounding Sai and Kairi in a large circle. But by the time Sai and Kairi recognized this, it was too late.

"_Ice Release: Giant Ice Prison!_"

Ice began to grow up out of the trails which surrounded them, and began to tower in the sky until it came together, forming a dome of ice around them. "Crap!" Kairi yelled, quickly jumping up in the air. Pushing chakra into her fist, she slammed it into the large dome around her, but to no avail.

Outside, Haku sighed in relief. She knew that with the cleverness of both Kairi and Sai that they would eventually escape, but by then the battle that she was going to would hopefully end. In a way, this was her idea of how to keep both Sai and Kairi alive. As long as they were out of Zabuza's way, she wouldn't have to kill them…

Her ice dome was a high ranked technique, one of the very few that she knew. While there was no particular ranking for special combined elements attacks, she guessed that her dome technique would probably be of an A-ranked attack. It would regenerate itself, using the chakra she had used to create it. However, since she was going to be leaving to assist Zabuza, she knew that her chakra on the technique would eventually run out. Actually, this technique was never meant to hold her prisoners for long. It was the parent jutsu of her _ice spikes of death_, in which large spikes would come out from the inside of the dome and impale and destroy everything inside. _That _was a particularly bloody jutsu, and she was glad that she had never had to use it before.

Nodding to herself, she shunshined away in a flash a wind, leaving the battle scene help her sensei.

* * *

_Elsewhere_

Naruto's eyes darted back and forward between Zabuza, his sensei and Anko. The three Jonin were furiously combating with one another and surprisingly it seemed as if Zabuza had the current advantage, despite the fight being two against one. The runaway Mist nin had the advantage in terrain, which he was currently using.

True to Naruto's thoughts, the lake which the Jonin were fighting on became fully submerged in the heavy mist, not even allowing Naruto's Rinnegan to see through it. For the millionth time Naruto cursed for his own weak eyes, and in turning to his side to see Sasuke's and Hinata's distressed faces, he guessed that they had lost visibility as well.

"Stay on guard," Naruto whispered out to his teammates, walking backwards. "At any moment Zabuza could jump out of the mist and attack us. We have to be ready!"

Sasuke, Hinata and Gaara nodded, while Tazuna let out a measly whimper. They slowly backed away from the fighting scene, to avoid the occasional blasts of water that shot out of the cloud of mist, along with fire. They laid low for about ten minutes or so until suddenly, the mist fell, revealing to them the combatants on the water.

Anko was currently kneeling over on her knees on the surface of the water, clutching her arm in pain. With Naruto's enhanced vision, he could spot out the crimson color of blood on her cloth as well as her hand, and he guessed that she had sustained an arm injury.

Kakashi, however, was holding his hands in a tiger seal, panting heavily while staring at Zabuza. Strangely enough, Zabuza was also holding up the same type of seal while staring back at Kakashi.

"Wh-What are they doing?" Hinata asked looking back and forth between the two powerful ninja. "They're just…standing there!"

Sasuke's eyes widened when he finally realized what was going on. "He's locked Zabuza in a genjutsu!" Sasuke claimed. "Zabuza's chakra flow is distorted, so that means that Kakashi is controlling him in some sort of genjutsu right now!"

Hinata nodded, looking deeply at Zabuza's chakra coils, recognizing that they were indeed distorted, and the flow was being cut off at parts. "S-Should we attack Zabuza while he's-" she started to say, though she was cut off suddenly when Zabuza himself let out a shout.

"Get out of my head, bastard!" he howled, breaking himself out of Kakashi's technique. Or so he thought.

"It's too late for you," Kakashi announced, allowing a somewhat smug look to show through his two eyes. "I've captured you within my Sharingan's jutsu. I can see everything now, even _your _future!"

Zabuza was about to retaliate when he realized that every subtle movement he made was copied by Kakashi. To test this ridiculous theory out, Zabuza swung his arm to the side. To his surprise, Kakashi did the same, at the _exact _same time. Zabuza started moving his arms around, and sure enough, Kakashi did the exact same movement of him again.

"Stop…" Zabuza yelled out, only to be interrupted by Kakashi.

"…copying me! I'll kill you!" Kakashi finished for him, causing Zabuza's eyes to widen.

"Damn you!"

Zabuza began to fly through his seals to unleash his _giant waterfall _attack, but before he could even get to the third seal, Kakashi shouted out,

"_Water Release: Giant Waterfall Jutsu!" _

Zabuza's eyes widened as a giant wave of water erupted from the lake and came crashing down on him, sweeping him away in the current underwater. The entire lake began to massively shift, throwing waves up everywhere, crashing into everything.

Naruto shield his face as water splashed back far enough to reach their group. He looked desperately to find where Zabuza had gone, and to his relief, he saw Zabuza slam into the side of the tree painfully. Shortly after, several kunai embedded them in Zabuza, causing him to yell out in pain.

"It's over!" Kakashi shouted, appearing in twenty meters front of Zabuza. He threw his palm to the ground and electricity began to sparkly around his hand. Channeling his chakra into his palm, he snapped his head forward, his hair blowing back with the shear energy of his attack.

"_Raikiri!_"

Running forward, Kakashi held his hand back and prepared to impale it inside of his opponent, whose eyes were now wide with fear.

"_Ice Release: Frost!_"

Kakashi's eyes widened when he went to take another step but he was unable to, causing his upper body to fly forward while his feet were glued to the ground. Or, frozen, would be a better word.

The ice which had consumed Kakashi's feet had crawled up to his upper legs, so that he didn't fly forward and he was successfully halted in his path. Somehow, the frost had crawled up from the ground and onto Kakashi's arm, which was holding the _Raikiri_, not allowing him to continue the technique at all. He screamed in pain when several senbon pierced through his legs, causing them to falter, making him fall to the ground.

The Copy Ninja cursed as his technique died out, making him remain stuck to the ground with the metal needles still sticking out of his legs. Lightning based attacks were ineffective against _two _elements; one being _wind_, and the other being _ice_. No matter how weak the ice or wind attack, they would always have some sort of an edge against his attack. In his case, his Raikiri was terminated and he was unable to break out of the ice.

Moments later, Haku appeared in front of Zabuza, quickly analyzing his wounds and pulling out the three kunai which were implanted in various parts of his body. "Zabuza, we need to retreat immediately to tend to your wounds," she advised, helping him stand up straight. Haku was a well trained medical ninja, and in the rare cases that Zabuza faced an opponent skilled enough to harm him, she would always have the correct herbs and skills to heal him properly. Over the years he had learned to trust her medical eye, so even though he felt up for continuing the battle, he nodded quickly at her before turning to Kakashi, who had already broken one of his legs out of the ice as well as his arm.

"We'll meet again, Kakashi. Tazuna isn't the only one who's on my death list now."

With that, both Zabuza and Haku disappeared in a swirl of leaves, right before more kunai were imbedded in the spot they had just inhabited.

Kakashi swore again, trying his best to stand up in his current position. It didn't take long for everybody to quickly surround him to see if he was alright, and what they should do. "Anko!" he said to her, pulling his cloth back over his Sharingan eye. "That person who helped Zabuza was the one fighting Sai and Kairi. If she made it back here and they didn't…"

Anko's eyes widened in realization and sudden fear upon hearing what Kakashi said. "Gaara, come with me!" she barked out, jumping into the trees seconds later with Gaara following right behind her.

Hinata activated her eyes, searching in the forest to find out where they were. To her relief, she found them not too far away, covered in some sort of strange chakra. "They're okay," she reported to her team, all who sighed in relief after hearing the good news.

Kakashi eye smiled and struggled to get into a standing position.

"I'm proud of you all," he said when he turned to face them. "You all did a great job protecting Tazuna and-"

Kakashi was unable to continue his speech when his bloody legs buckled from underneath him, and the chakra that he was using to keep himself standing depleted. Unable to keep himself up, he lunged forward and fell flat on the ground, falling into unconsciousness.

* * *

_Tazuna's House, Next Morning_

Team 7 all sat around their still unconscious sensei, wondering what they ought to do since there was no one to instruct them. Anko had taken her students to go and supervise Tazuna and his building of the bridge, and she wanted Team 7 to stay at the would so that there would always be some protection over Tazuna's family, which consisted of his daughter Tsunami and her son, Inari.

The Tsunami was currently fixing up breakfast, and Inari was somewhere brooding. The strange boy had showed up to dinner the other night with tears in his eyes, screaming out that they were all going to die. Creepy as it was, Naruto was going to laugh it off it he didn't notice the look of fear on Hinata's eyes, and the wavering look on Sasuke's eyes. Apparently, after seeing Zabuza in all of his glory, such a statement wasn't too unrealistic.

Naruto was going to give the boy a piece of his mind, to boost the morale of his team up once again, but the boy ran off to his room, leaving Tsunami in his beg for their forgiveness. Whatever the boy had intended by saying such things was unknown, but the dinner's mood had been ruined.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Naruto looked back down to his sensei that was lying peacefully on the ground. They tried several different tactics to try and wake him up, some of which had left him bruises and others that would remain secret between the three students forever, but none of them had worked.

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes widened when an idea came to mind.

"I know that this really isn't the time to be playing around," he stated, gaining the attention of Sasuke and Hinata, "but seeing how sensei is unconscious and everything, this would be the perfect opportunity to take off his mask and see what his real face looks like!"

When he saw the look of shock on both Sasuke's and Hinata's face, he sighed and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Ya, I know, it was a stupid idea. We probably should respect sensei…"

Sasuke, however, laughed at Naruto and smiled underneath his own crimson mask.

"Yeah right! Respect sensei?! Since when has Kakashi ever respected anybody!" he retorted, scooting closer to Kakashi in preparations to take of his mask.

Hinata however was the one to think over their decision, turning her head to the side and mumbling, "I'm not sure sensei would appreciate if we removed his mask…"

Both Naruto and Sasuke stopped their laughing and turned to look at the shy Hyuuga who was now blushing. They looked back at one another to see what they would actually do.

"Fine," Naruto stated, coming up with his own plan. "Whoever _doesn't _want to see Kakashi's face can leave the room and respect his wishes. Those who do want to see his face can stay back here and watch."

It was no surprise that nobody moved and inch from their position, which caused all of them to laugh again.

"Alright, here goes," Naruto said, his hand inching forward to Kakashi's face. Time itself began to slow down, and Hinata and Sasuke leaned in on Naruto, all staring down intensely at Kakashi, eager for the moment of truth. Nearly sweating, Naruto's hand finally connected with Kakashi's cloth. His shaking fingers pinched the mask at the top, and he began to pull down, slowly but surely…

In an instant Kakashi's hand flew upwards and grabbed a hold of Naruto's wrist before his mask could actually be pulled down. Everybody screamed and jumped backwards, but Kakashi still had an iron grip on Naruto's hand.

Moments later, Kakashi's eye slowly opened and it focused on Naruto in front of him. "Hm? What's going on?" Now, looking at how his hand was clutching Naruto's, Kakashi managed to chuckle.

"Ah. It's good to see that my jutsu still works," he elaborated, not really elaborating anything. Noticing the confused look on everybody's faces, he decided to explain after letting Naruto go. "You see, a lot of people want to see under my mask, and that number had only increased over the years. Some girls would even sneak into my house and try to pull it off while I was sleeping, and one girl was nearly successful, so I had to think of a way to prevent this. So, I came up with a jutsu that allows me to react to anyone who wishes to touch any part body while I sleep. This turned out to be a particularly interesting technique when someone attempted to assassinate me while I was sleeping, and I managed to block their attack, due to this jutsu. It's pretty useful."

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were nodding their heads thoughtfully, hoping that Kakashi would forget that they were just trying to look at his face. To their disappointment, Kakashi's hummed a little while he was striking a thinking pose.

"Normally my technique grabs any person close to me before they can even reach my body, so I assume that it was a little late in activating because I was unconscious," he added, pulling his mask up just a little bit. "And because you guys tried to ambush me while I was sleeping, training today is going to SUCK!"

Team 7's Genin's faces all fell, knowing how grueling Kakashi could make training when he wanted to. Having a previous Anbu Captain for a sensei had its major downs sometimes…

* * *

_Wave Country_

Itachi and Sub-Zero stood on top of a tree, looking down at the village before them.

"It's gonna take some time to find this guy," Sub-Zero pointed out, dropping down to the base of the large tree. "We're stopping off to eat." It wasn't a question.

Itachi landed next to his partner, not for the first time wondering why they were chosen to chase after this runaway Mist ninja. Nagato, being the current leader of their organization, had the choice to call off this tedious mission of theirs, but for some reason he urged them to continue it, almost as if he knew something that they didn't. Nowadays, Itachi could only guess how much Pain actually knew about everything…

"Fine. Let's be quick about this."

* * *

_Woods, Next Morning_

True to his words, Kakashi had trained them hard all day, even though he himself couldn't do much. The previous battle with Zabuza had left Kakashi in crutches, due to the senbon that had hit his leg, and his exhaustion from using his Sharingan. Naruto guessed that it was only because Kakashi was not taking part in any of the training that he made it so hard and hard it was.

Naruto had been assigned to practice with his clones, like he had been for some time. Kakashi, as well as Hinata and Sasuke, were surprised with the capability of the shadow clone, and Kakashi provoked and encouraged Naruto to train extra with it to increase his abilities. The result was Naruto not being able to wake up for breakfast the next morning, due to the strain on his mind and the hour he stayed up last night.

He sat up for a moment, looking at the scarred forest around him, before falling back down to the ground. He was sure that nobody would be angry at him for staying a few minutes late.

__________

Sai tried to keep a smile on his face as he walked out of Tazuna's house and into the nearby woods were Kakashi told him Naruto was training last night. He had been nominated by everyone else to go out and make sure that Naruto was alright and that he knew that it was time for breakfast. Sai had assumed that Hinata would be the obvious choice, due to her bloodline limit and passion for the blonde, to go and find Naruto. It was because of his distractions that he had lost the game of 'nose goes', when the question arrived, whatever that was. Perhaps he would read a book on that game later and its strategies.

Walking through the woods, Sai felt a sudden sense of nostalgia hit him when he saw a familiar looking female bent over, picking up some flowers and putting them in her basket. Hey wondered whether or not he should stop and say hello or something, but he decided just to move on and shake the strange feeling off of him.

"___Ohayo_ gozaimasu, Sai!"

Sai snapped around and saw that the girl he walked by was now looking up at him, smiling. Wait…how did she know his name?

"Um…hello," Sai responded, trying to be polite and not offend the person who somehow knew him.

After seeing the lack of response that Sai showed, Haku frowned and put a small pout on her face. "You don't remember me, do you," she pointed out rather sadly, though still smiling. She had been raised to conceal her emotions, and smiling was often what she would do to hide her true feelings regardless of what they are.

Strangely enough, Sai had been raised in a similar way. Smiling like she did, he shook his head, truthfully having no idea who the girl was.

"I last saw you in Kiri!" Haku proclaimed, throwing her flowers in her basket while standing up and walking over to him. "I found you asleep in the middle of the forest, and we trained together!"

Sai's eyes widened when the memories of this girl finally appeared in his head. This was the girl from Kiri all those years ago! He sparred with her that one afternoon, and if he remembered correctly, he had won.

"Oh yeah!" he responded, with the same smile on his face. "I remember you now. We sparred together and I easily stomped you, proving to you how little your skills really were," he claimed, thinking back to that day.

Haku's eyebrow twitched at the painfully obvious way Sai was speaking, but kept that same smile on her face nonetheless. If someone dense, say, Naruto, were to peer in on their conversation, he would probably think that the two were actually smiling happily.

"Yes, you did beat me," Haku started, though she was cut off by Sai.

"Yep. I hope your skills have gotten better, because I was not impressed!" Sai interrupted her, not realizing that he could possibly be offending her. He hadn't gotten to that advanced of a 'conversation' book.

Haku let out a strained chuckled and nodded at him while eye-smiling. "I did! I trained really hard and my skills have really improved!" she said, trying to get the conversation off of how bad she might have been in the past.

Sai shrugged, not really caring how powerful this random girl from his memory was. But, random as she was, he couldn't help but admit that she was pretty… well, _pretty_, especially in the pink kimono that she was wearing. That, along with her fair skin, and her dark long hair…

At that thought, Sai caught himself from flinching when the image of the assassin he had fought the other day came into his mind. The more he compared the two, the more he thought that they looked alike…

"You wouldn't happen to be the assassin that tried to kill me and Kairi the other day out in the woods, working under Zabuza, would you?" he bluntly asked, peering closely at her, his smile fading.

Haku's heart skipped a beat and she had to stop herself from flinching and stepping backwards at the sheer question asked. Did he know?! If he did, why would he ask her?

"Um…I really don't know who this Zabuza person is," Haku replied, trying her best to look confused. She hoped that Sai hadn't seen through her disguise…she really did enjoy the few moments where she was treated as a normal girl, and not on the run from people wanting to kill her for what she does. Being careful anyways, her hand reached down ever so slowly to her pouch of senbon that was concealed by her kimono.

Sai's smile returned to his face and he scratched the back of his head. "Great! Cause if you were, that would be really awkward, seeing as how I would be forced to fight you and all."

Haku sighed in the relief of keeping her identity from being revealed. That is, if it still was secret. With Sai always having that strange smile on his face, she couldn't really tell what exactly he was thinking.

"Yeah, that would be pretty awkward," she agreed, hoping to drop that matter as well.

Sai nodded, and turned around, beginning to walk away. "I gotta go and wake up Naruto," he called out behind him. "So I have to be quick before the others think I'm missing as well."

Haku smiled and nodded as he began to walk away, watching his back as he continued to move farther from her. She hesitated for a moment, looking back between the herbs she was supposed to be picking and the retreating figure of Sai, and she shook her head, running quickly after Sai.

When she caught up with him, he gave her another one of his questionably fake smiles.

"Well, I have nothing better to do," she somewhat lied, trying to smile back, "so I'll just come with you for now!" After all, any extra information or weaknesses she could pick up from the group wouldn't hurt, right?

* * *

_Tazuna's House_

Whatever Haku had intended to accomplish by following Sai, it wasn't to be taken back to where the entire group of Konoha ninja were staying, as well as her target, Tazuna. She got lucky when Sai didn't recognize her, but would Kairi? What about Kakashi Hatake? While she had her mask on, she didn't want to doubt his perceptiveness that he had become famous for.

When she had met up with Naruto with Sai, she was slightly taken aback with his friendliness, as well as his openness. Why else would she possibly agree to go back to Tazuna's house? The blonde Rinnegan ninja had somehow convinced her that accompanying them would be a really good thing. Just the way that Naruto seemed so eager to make new friends made her feel really guilty for not being the innocent flower girl who she pretended to be.

She was now standing before the entirety of the Konoha ninja and Tazuna's family, all who were now staring at her, the new girl, who just walked in with Naruto and Sai.

"O-Ohayo!" she greeted to everyone, bowing very low with her face heating up from pressure. She could hear her heart pulse through her body with every beat. Any second now Kakashi Hatake could strike her to end her life. Anko could send a poisonous snake to her and bite her before she could stop it. Naruto could be waiting for the perfect opportunity to stab her in the back. She had to get out before it was too late…

On the other hand, it was possible that they didn't know that there was an assassin among them. She could lash out and kill Tazuna before any of them could stop her, and save Zabuza the trouble of having to do it later. Her mind raced as she thought of the possibilities that arose before her.

Tazuna was within her range. But, even if she succeeded in killing him, she had no doubt that she would not make it out of the house in time. It was a suicide mission! This was the hard part…she had no problem whatsoever dying for Zabuza. But she also didn't doubt that Zabuza would manage to kill Tazuna, and that he would succeed in a week's time. So would her killing Tazuna now with the result of her death be more useful to Zabuza? Or would her doing nothing and wait to kill Tazuna later be more useful to him? With the money that they would gain from this mission, they could break off of Gato's grasp, and finally go off on their own. When they would, would Zabuza need her? Would…

Sasuke stared at the strange girl who had just walked into the room. His eyes weren't as good as his brother's, but even he could tell that something was up with her. She just seemed…out of it, like her mind was thinking something completely different than what she was saying…

Hinata smiled politely at the girl. She certainly was pretty…she wondered what Haku was doing with Naruto before they came her. Hopefully nothing…

Gaara frowned as usual upon the entrance of the girl. Her chakra levels were unusually high for some 'flower girl', who Sai was explaining she was right now. No doubt at all that she was a ninja. So why was she coming here again?

Kairi frowned as well as she looked back and forth between Gaara and this new girl. Why was her staring at her like that? Was it because he thought the girl was pretty? Kairi had cut her hair recently, so it was pretty short… did Gaara prefer long hair? Kairi had fought way too long to earn Gaara's attention for some random pretty-faced girl to…

Lucky for Haku, the majority of the ninja weren't focused on whether or not she was allied with Zabuza. Also, due to Kakashi being crippled and in crutches, her chances of escape were higher. And, because Kakashi was apparently eye-smiling all the time, he probably wouldn't have that many opportunities to actually see her.

"And that's how we met her!" Naruto finished, expecting some sort of applaud or something, due to his historically brilliant speech. When no one even recognized that he was done, and because they were all staring intently at Haku, Naruto himself turned to look at the girl who seemed to want to shrink into the ground.

__________

Haku resisted the urge to run away after dismissing herself from the house. Claiming to have something else important to do, she began to leave Tazuna's house, heading for the door.

She was really unsure how to describe her experience. It was certainly…useful, but…it was also fun as well! They had gone out back into the forest and she had watched them train, and she was surprised at the strong bonds Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata had. Sure, Gaara, Sai and Kairi trained good as well, but there was just something special about Team 7, as she found out they were called. Even that led into a friendly argument of what the team should be called. Sasuke thought that Team Sharingan would be appropriate name, and of course, Naruto recommended the name Team Rinnegan, which when he asked Hinata what she thought of that name, she blushed and said that it was really good. Haku couldn't help but be dragged into the friendliness of all of them. Even Kakashi showed a deep care for his students that maybe they didn't catch, but she did. And it was something that she had never seen from her own sensei.

The feeling that Haku was feeling now…could be described as jealousy and disappointment. She was jealous of how good the Konoha ninja had it, and she was disappointed that she had to return to Zabuza, a different life.

"Hey, Haku!" a voice called out behind her after she began walking down the trail for a while. Turning around, she was surprised to find Sai running down the trail after her.

When he reached her, he smiled and held out her basket of flowers. "You left this back at Tazuna-san's house," he mentioned, handing it over to her. Her eyes widened when she realized how careless she had been. What would Zabuza say to her if she returned without any flowers, and claimed to have left it back at Tazuna's house?!

"A-Arigatou!" she thanked, bowing her head to him and accepting the basket.

"No problem."

After a moment of silence, Haku began to back away, turning around. "I-I have to go now!" she called out behind her, now jogging down the path.

Sai continued to smile as Haku's figure retreated down the path.

* * *

_Unknown Location_

"What do you mean, a week?!" Zabuza roared at her, not really mad at her, but at the situation in general. Haku smiled at her sensei, thinking that his eagerness was funny.

"The damage that was done to you during the fight…it will take a week to recover fully from it!" she said happily, ignoring how upset Zabuza was currently looking.

After several moments of grumbling, Zabuza crossed his arms in his bed, accepting defeat.

"Fine. It doesn't matter. Tazuna will die in one week."

* * *

_End_

A/N: This chapter didn't turn out to be nearly as good as I had hoped, but hopefully the next one will turn out to be much better and more interesting.

Anyways, here is the list of OCs that I have created. I also decided to do that for all needed characters, so we can compare. As for power levels, they don't really need to be revealed until certain parts of the story, so after this, I won't really need to make any for a while.

Power Levels:

Human: **5**

Strong Human: **10**

Genin: **40**

Chunin: **100**

Jonin: **250**

ANBU: **200-300**

ANBU Captain: **350**

Sannin: **400-500 **(yes I know this is not _really _a power level. But the three actual Sannin are in between these levels, so we can compare to them)

Kage: **500+**

**Naruto**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **Blonde**

Eye Color: **Blue**

Affiliation: **Konoha**

Special Ability: **Rinnegan**, **Jinchuuriki**

Team: **Team 7**

Power Level: **180**

Interesting Facts: **Possesses Tenrai Rinnegan (though not activated)**

**Sasuke**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **Black with Blue Tint**

Eye Color: **…Dark**

Affiliation: **Konoha**

Special Ability: **Sharingan**

Team: **Team 7**

Power Level: **170**

Interesting Facts: **Possesses Kagai Mangekyou Sharingan (though not activated)**

**Hinata**

Gender: **Female**

Hair Color: **Dark Blue**

Eye Color: **Pearly White**

Affiliation: **Konoha**

Special Ability: **Byakugan**

Team: **Team 7**

Power Level: **160**

Interesting Facts: **Possesses Shinsei Byakugan (though not activated)**

**__________**

**Sai**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **Black**

Eye Color: **Dark**

Affiliation: **Konoha**

Special Ability: **Art**

Team: **Team 11**

Power Level: **155**

Interesting Fact: **Originally not from Konoha. He was dropped off by a mysterious person and orphaned by Root.**

**Gaara**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **Red**

Eye Color: **Teal**

Affiliation: **Konoha**

Special Ability: **Sand, Jinchuuriki**

Team: **Team 11**

Power Level: **200**

Interesting Facts: **Has never fallen asleep.**

**Kairi**

Introduced: **Gaara Arc (**Chapter 6)

Gender: **Female**

Hair Color: **White**

Eye Color: **Purple**

Affiliation: **Konoha**

Special Ability: **Unnamed Bloodline Limit, Chakra Gate Control**

Team: **Team 11**

Power Level: **150**

Interesting Facts: **First friend of Gaara. Was banished from her homeland and her parents were killed.**

**__________**

**Roku**

Introduced: **Chapter 8**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **Silver**

Eye Color: **Dark Blue**

Affiliation: **Kumo, Korochi Clan**

Special Ability: **Kurokugan (**similar to Byakugan, look back if you've forgotten), **Jinchuuriki**

Team: **Team Kumo **(will be described in Chunin Exam arc)

Power Level: **210**

Interesting Facts: **Capable of Lava Release jutsu**

**Naminé**

Introduced: **Chapter 12 **(though she did appear 9 as the ramen bar waitress for Naruto and Hinata)

Gender: **Female**

Hair Color: **Blonde**

Eye Color: **Blue**

Affiliation: **Konoha**

Special Ability: **She's an Angel**

Team: **Team Kumo**

Power Level: **160**

Interesting Facts: -**She's a fricken Angel! -Banished from Angels when she was younger**

**Kinzoku **(Roku's best friend, who was with him when he had Roku was blinded as well as when it was time for Roku's Kurokugan to be activated)

Introduced: **Chapter 9**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **Silver (**Korochi thing)

Eye Color: **Dark Blue**

Affiliation: **Kumo**

Team: **Team Kumo**

Power Level: **160**

**__________**

**Koutetsu**

Introduced: **Koutetsu Arc Chapter 8**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **Dark**

Eye Color: **Dark**

Affiliation: **Akatsuki **(Trainee)

Special Ability: **Kugutsu **(puppetry)

Team: **Team Tobi **

Power Level: **240**

Interesting Facts: **The guy who attacked Naminé and caused her to become mute. -Gaara crushed his leg when he was young, crippling him and not allowing him to enter the ninja Academy**

**Karin**

Gender: **Female**

Hair Color: **Red**

Eye Color: **Red**

Affiliation: **Akatsuki **(Trainee)

Special Ability: **Chakra Sensor**

Team: **Team Tobi**

Power Level: **160**

Interesting Facts: **Likes to think that she is in charge of her team. –Harbors a crush on Koutetsu, though it is not returned**

**Suigetsu**

Gender: **Male**

Hair Color: **White**

Eye Color: **Purple**

Affiliation: **Akatsuki **(Trainee)

Special Ability: **Hydration Technique, where he can turn his body into water.**

Team: **Akatsuki **(Trainee)

Power Level: **190**

Interesting Facts: **Can turn his body into water.  
**

__________

**Matsuri**

Introduced: **Koutetsu Arc Chapter 8**

Gender: **Female**

Hair Color: **Brown**

Eye Color: **Brown**

Affiliation: **Suna **

Special Ability: **Weapons Specialist**

Power Level: **120**

Interesting Facts: **Was taken by force to work as a house servant for a daimyo.**

If I am missing anybody or you are confused, tell me, and I will right up a small summary for that person as well.

Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter! Sorry it took a long time to come out…hopefully with this time off of school, I'll be able to get far on the next chapter. A special thanks for those who review, as your input really helps me with the story. If there is something on your mind, and you don't really think you need to say it, say it anyway and make my day. (Or ruin it…)

Merry Christmas to all, and a happy new year! I'll upload an Omake with this later today.

Anotamous: thanks for the review. Yeah, the last omake wasn't really supposed to be really funny, but I put it in there to connect a little with the story.

VLS: thanks! And I did. It was great!

Naruto7332: Thanks for the help. When I read through my own work I tend to miss a lot of spelling errors, so any help is welcome and appreciated. Yeah, Naruto will eventually learn some badass Sage jutsu, but that won't be until Jiraiya comes into the picture. Regarding Roku and Namine, I include them because they tie together with Naruto as well as Akatsuki. Please try and bear through it and get the important facts down so that you understand what's going on later.

Kazuma-144: Sorry about the OCs seeming strong. I tried to elaborate their training skills better. The OCs are stronger, like Koutetsu and Roku, because in Koutetsu's example, he trained himself with reckless abandon, trying to prove to Suna that just because he is a cripple, he can still be a ninja. He had a purpose. Then, he was personally trained by Sasori, the greatest puppeteer in the world one on one. There is a reason for his strength. Roku is a well trained Jinchuuriki who trains hard every day with his clan's guidance. Unlike Naruto or Hinata, he has a Clan behind him to help him in what he needs to make him much stronger. They promote his training. Gaara is naturally strong. I mean, in the original manga, he kills Jonin and Chunin alike with the flick of his wrist. He has never been hit before in the original series, and completes missions being untouched. His own fricken Jonin sensei fears him. That makes him freaky powerful. In my story, I tried to keep that, and add his own training schedule so that he stays strong. He's naturally talented, after all. Thanks for pointing out about Naruto's team being weak. I hate reading that in a story, and I'm gonna change that soon. After all, when I looked back at my power list, Naruto and his teammates are way too strong to be cowering in fear every battle, despite of experience. I'm going to make that change, and hopefully, it's not too late.

Dbtiger63: Thanks for another review! I'm still deciding when she will awaken her eyes, and hopefully she won't far too far behind Sasuke and Naruto. But, I have a plan for her power level and how I'm going to use it for her in the future. I'm excited for Naruto's elemental training as well, but he's going to learn it with each element he masters. Oh, and by the way, I really appreciate how you review each of my chapters and I really do look forward to seeing your input.

Rena: I really enjoy you reviews. They always make me smile, and quite often laugh. Haha I'm glad you enjoy the tension between characters, and how they met Matsuri while Koutetsu is still looking for her. As for Pain alerting Naruto about the Leader, I'm hoping for that scene to be really intense!

MidnightMoonlightShadowGhost: I greatly appreciate you leaving by your review. It keeps me in a good mood for the day to know that someone else out there likes what I write. I hope you enjoyed the update, and look forward to the next one!

Tobiwd: Thanks! Started freaking out when I started, but I laughed at the end of your review.

Makito Namikaze: Yeah I guess that has become a pattern. If only everybody had a great childhood and they all got along! I'm glad you enjoyed the Matsuri section. I wanted to introduce to the readers what actually happened to her. As for Tobi, he will be described in detail eventually, and I'm gonna tell his history and what happened to him after Konoha.

Dan: you make a good point when you reviewed chapter 2. Hopefully you're still reading this. About Naruto and his friends earning their powers slowly, they are. Most everyone in Naruto has some sort of special ability when they were introduced by Kishimoto, be it a bloodline limit or not. In the canon, Naruto had a demon inside of him that gave him healing powers, even though that's not called a bloodline limit. In my story, I'm having the Rinnegan sort of block off the Kyuubi's chakra so that Naruto isn't overpowered. And instead of blasting him with Pain's powers, I'm having him learn how to do them slowly. Anyways, thanks for your review!

-williams5505

* * *

Omake: Merry Christmas Naruto-Kun!

* * *

_Hyuuga Manor_

It was early Christmas morning and Hinata found herself working in the kitchen on her perfect Christmas gifts. Christmas wasn't celebrated as much in Japan as it was in Western Countries, but most people still celebrated it. Naruto had invited all of his friends to his house that evening for a small little Christmas party. While he didn't really want it to be anything special, Hinata of course dedicated her week to planning on how to impress Naruto and what to get him.

Right now, she was working on a large Christmas cake that she wanted everyone to enjoy at the party. Her apron was a mess and it was colored with all sorts of frosting and chocolates, but Hinata didn't really mind. Tapping her foot, she waited for the last few seconds before the timer went off and the cake was ready…

_Ding Ding!_

She quickly put on her oven mitts and pulled out the large cake from the oven before she set it on the counter to cool, layering it with all sorts of frosting. Looking at it with a critical eye, she frowned and began to fear whether or not she should actually present the cake at the party. She wasn't thinking straight, and when she was decorating it, she had drawn a chibi Naruto in the center, detailed with his mask and everything. Thinking quickly as not to ruin the cake, she drew a picture of Sasuke, as well as herself.

Sighing, she covered up the cake before putting it in a box making it suitable for travel. She dusted her hands off, glad to be finished with the first part of her gift for Naruto. The next part would be more difficult. Baking something for Naruto was obvious, but she wanted to do something different as well. Other girls like Ino and Sakura appreciated shoes and purses, and they made that painstakingly obvious to their teammates (or so she had heard), but what did Naruto or Sasuke like. She could settle for giving both of them explosive tags, which they both would appreciate. After all, what boy _didn't _enjoy blowing things up? But still, she wanted her gift to be special, and Naruto already had an unnecessary amount of explosive tags, so much that one closet of his was dedicated to _boxes _and _boxes_ of them. It was quite the safety hazard. Should they ever ignite, there were enough of them to destroy the majority of the entire Namikaze compound.

She shook her head, trying to stop herself from sidetracking. She would definitely get them something that they would like! …but what? They already had weapons, kunai, you name it! Other boys were easy to decide…she got Shikamaru nice a nice and expensive Shogi board with crystal players, she got Chouji a generous coupon to the barbeque restaurant, she got Shino a new pair of glasses, should he ever break his own, and she got Kiba a useful dog trick book (for ninja dogs of course) that looked pretty fun.

She even knew what to get Sai and Gaara! She was sure that Sai would probably get something _art _related from everyone else, like paintbrushes or something, so she decided to get him a different style of gift, which was leg massager for his room. For Gaara, she bought him a small TV for his room (after all, it wasn't like Gaara would be sleeping at night, so this might give him something to do!) Being the heir of the Hyuuga Clan and all, she had quite a large budget, so money wasn't an issue.

Let's think now…Sasuke is a boy ninja…who likes things having to do with fire…oh, that's it! She could get him a chakra lamp for his room! It was a pretty cool and nifty thing she saw at the store the other day for ninja! You were supposed to set up lamps around the room, and when the user pushed some chakra into them, they ignited with fire! She would have to buy that right away!

Now, on to what to get Naruto for a gift. Hinata unconsciously fumbled around with the pearl necklace she that Naruto had given her for her birthday years ago. Naruto had spent a lot of time making her that, and she really appreciated it. Maybe she could make him something that he could enjoy for a while…but what? Maybe she could make him her own necklace!

Nodding to herself, she hastily left the kitchen preparing to buy and get what she needed for each gift.

* * *

_Naruto's House_

"Merry Christmas!"

Every shouted out the phrase happily when the last person had made it to Naruto's party. Naruto's living room in his mansion was decorated with a fireplace and a nice Christmas tree, which was currently full of presents being unwrapped by everyone in frenzy.

Hinata let her own pile go untouched as she fumbled around with the necklace in her hand. She didn't have time to wrap it, so she would need to give it to him personally. Dodging people and trying to weave through the crowd, she headed in Naruto's general direction, hoping to give him her heart felt necklace.

"Oh boy, a coupon to the barbeque restaurant!" she heard someone shout out.

"A Shogi board? That's pretty…un-troublesome?"

"Oh yay. Another paintbrush."

"Holy shit! Who got that TV?!"

"What's a Chakra Fire Lamp?"

"Why the hell would _I _want to read Icha Icha Paradise?!"

She finally ran into Naruto, who was currently looking at a gift (most likely from Sasuke or Kakashi) if you would even call it that. Throwing the pornographic book away, he was about to open his next present when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"A-Ano, Naruto-kun," she started, about to give him her gift. "I-I wanted to-"

"Yo, Naruto!" Kiba called out, jumping right in between them. "Here's my gift!" he said, throwing Naruto a package which he eagerly opened.

When he was done, he looked back up at Hinata with confusion. "Were you going to say something?" he asked Hinata, who was nervously pushing her fingers together.

"Ano, just that I-I made you-"

"Naruto-kuuun!" Ino shouted out, jumping in front of Hinata in a similar manner to Kiba. "I got you some _romantic _chocolates!"

"Um, thanks, Ino!" Naruto replied, adding Ino's gift to his pile.

Once again, Naruto looked up at Hinata, rather sheepishly. "Sorry about that! What were-?"

"Hey!" a voice shouted out from the entrance of the room. Everyone grew silent and turned to see who it was. Kakashi was leaning coolly against the door, now the center of attention, holding a piece of cake on a plate in his hand. Kiba, the one who was pointing his finger at him and shouted, spoke again. "Where did you get that piece of cake?!"

Kakashi eye-smiled and shrugged. "Oh, this? I found it on the kitchen table. There's actually a lot of it, and it's really good. Probably Hina-"

"Cake in the kitchen!!!"

Everybody charged out of the room, stampeding Kakashi, to quickly get to the cake which was said to be in the kitchen. Naruto had somehow gotten dragged away and Hinata was once more left standing alone, holding out her necklace to nobody.

"K-Kuso!" she shouted out rather rare word for anybody to ever hear her say.

"Whoa, Hinata, watch the language there!" Kakashi said, giving her a strange look while picking himself off of the floor from getting stampeded on. Hinata blushed a deep red and bowed her head in apology to her sensei.

"G-Gomen, sensei!"

Kakashi laughed it off, thinking that Hinata would have caught his sarcasm. "Haha! It's okay!" he replied. Finally noticing that she was holding some sort of necklace, he asked her,

"Hm? Is that some sort of gift for Naruto?" he guessed, correct as usual. Hinata's lack of response and her gagging and stuttering of words was enough for Kakashi to understand that her was right.

"Come here," he said mischievously, grabbing her hand and dragging her in to the kitchen.

__________

"Hey everybody! Hinata's got something to say!"

The room fell silent as everybody turned their attention to Hinata, who was trying to sink into the ground.

"Go on, Hinata," Kakashi sensei encouraged with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Give _Naruto_ your gift!" he said with emphasis on the word Naruto. The group of people 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed at Hinata, catching on to Kakashi's joke and further embarrassing the girl.

Naruto was somehow managed to be pushed to the front of the room in front of Hinata, wondering what Hinata wanted to give him.

"Eh? Hinata-chan, what is it that you wanted to say?" Naruto asked, somehow unaware that they were the complete center of attention.

Hinata's eyes darted back and forth between Naruto's deep blue ones and the watchful eyes of everyone around them. All she wanted was to give her gift to Naruto in private! Taking a deep sigh, she decided to face up to the challenged that Kakashi had thrown at her, and she held out her arms, holding the necklace she had made. It was quite simple, though beautiful, and it consisted of a nice string with a blue jewel that (hopefully) matched the color of Naruto's eyes.

"T-This is for you, Naruto-kun!" she announced rather loudly, trying her best to be bold. She literally thrust the necklace into him, though he wasn't expecting this action. Consequently, she actually did hit Naruto, causing him to fly backwards into the person behind him (everyone was eavesdropping closely of course), which in turn caused that person to spill their eggnog into the face of another person who would swing their arms out and elbow someone else in the face.

Kakashi chuckled as a wave of nostalgia passed over him, watching everyone flail around or fall to the ground. He, of course, was untouched by the mayhem, so he walked up to Hinata and gave the wide-eyed mortified girl a pat on the back.

"Way to go, Hinata!" he cheered her on.

__________

Aside from Hinata _ruining _Christmas (that's what she thought, everyone else thought it was funny, aside from the guy who got eggnog in his face); the rest of the night went uneventful. Naruto politely escorted each of his guests outside of his compound and wished them all good night.

Hinata was currently sitting on top of the observatory which towered over Naruto's house, wanting to kill herself. Everyone tried convincing her that they didn't care about what happened, and that they were pulling her leg to begin with, but she was emotionally a wreck. How did this all happen? What was she thinking?!

"I like the necklace," a voice sounded out from surprisingly in front of her. Naruto climbed over the ledge of the tower, flopping down in the space next to Hinata. "It looks really nice!" he complemented, failing to notice the shock and embarrassment on Hinata's face.

Looking to the side, Hinata attempted to avoid any contact with Naruto's face.

"S-Sorry about ruining the party," she voiced, hoping that he wouldn't be too mad at her. Her head snapped around however to look at him when Naruto scoffed at her comment.

"Ha! If anything, it made it more fun! I wasn't expecting you to Jyuuken strike me while I wasn't paying attention!" he joked, laughing by himself.

After seeing the horrified look on Hinata's face, he quickly apologized and slung his arm around her shoulder.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" he reassured, noticing the squeak she let out upon contact. "But really, this necklace is wonderful! It's my favorite gift by far!"

The last words that Naruto said were barely more than a slur to Hinata whose vision was turning fuzzy and hearing was fading.

"Oh, yeah," Naruto mentioned, turning to look at the near unconscious Hyuuga, "merry Christmas, Hinata-chan!"

"M-Merry Christmas, Naruto-kun…"

_Thump…_unconscious.

* * *

_End of Omake_


	15. Reunion on the Bridge Part 1

**Important Notice: **As of this date, I have decided to classify this story into Books; i.e. Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, ect. I was thinking about it, and if this story goes as planned, it's going to be really long. As of now, this story is around 290,000 words, and according to a questionably reliable google search, the last Harry Potter book was 204,796 words. So, to make this more realistic in a way, the story will be divided into different books. It will all be under The Second Born, so it's like subsections. I'm not sure how long each book is going to be, but this one is going to end with the Wave Arc. That means either this chapter or the next. The title of this book is just The Beginning, which is a safe and simple title. Each chapter will have what book it is under.

**Another Important Notice: **This is another notice worth being bolded. I seem to have made a mistake quite a long time ago, and while I was re-reading my earlier chapters I realized what I did wrong. Remember back in chapter three where Naruto received the two special scrolls from the old master who helped him make his katana? I've changed the name of one of the scrolls, because I somehow confused the ideas that I had planned. One of them is called the **Elemental Taijutsu **scroll, and that will stay. But the other one is now renamed **Elemental Techniques **scroll. Not too big of a change, since we haven't heard about them in a while, but they will be brought up again this chapter.

Let's Begin!

The Second Born

Book One: The Beginning

Chapter 15: Reunion on the Bridge Part 1

* * *

_Land of Waves, Forest_

"One week?!" Sasuke complained, looking at his sensei with disbelief in his eyes.

Kakashi eye smiled at his Uchiha student and nodded his head. "Yep! We won't be able to go on patrol duty as guards for another week. That's how long it should take for me to heal. Not everyone heals as fast a Naruto, you know," he added in a matter-of-fact tone.

Sasuke grumbled and slouched against the tree that was closest to him. "But Sai's team gets to go and patrol! Why can't we just go there with them?"

Kakashi sighed at the pushiness of his student. "Because we are not Team 11. We are Team 7, who is currently not functioning because _your _sensei is incapacitated!"

Sasuke still mumbled something under his breath but didn't pester Kakashi anymore. Hinata, who was standing close to the two, tried to encourage her crestfallen teammate.

"A-Ano, it's alright Sasuke-kun," she encouraged, trying to think of what Naruto would say, "At least we can train now, together!"

Sasuke snorted at this. "Not even! Naruto's off with clones doing that 'levitate a leaf' training!" Hinata was silenced as she didn't know what to say to that. It was true; Naruto had been training more with his clones recently than with their team.

"So then why don't you guys train with Naruto's clones as well?" Kakashi brought up, causing both Sasuke and Hinata to quickly look at him. "I mean, what better way to practice than with enemies that you can actually use your techniques on?"

Hinata quickly nodded, immediately liking the idea of being surrounded by Naruto...for training purposes, of course. It took Sasuke a moment of careful consideration before he nodded too, agreeing with the plan.

* * *

_Elsewhere, Hilltop_

"_Chief," _a voice sounded in his head. Naruto stopped what he was doing and closed his eyes, his Rinnegan eyes looking in his mind.

"_Your team is headed your way. They are a quarter mile away and should arrive in front of you in five minutes."_

Naruto connected with his clone and saw the mental video of Kakashi, Sasuke and Hinata traveling through the woods in his direction. Man, his Rinnegan Clones were awesome! He may never have to be surprised again!

"_Thank you…clone," _Naruto thought back at the Commander Clone that contacted him. Damn…he needed to start naming these clones. He had read a scroll on the Shadow Clone jutsu that showed him how to make the same clone be summoned each time, similar to a summoning contract. So, in a way, Naruto could personalize a specific clone, and if he desired, summon that one exclusively. The clones weren't permanent; creating a solid and human clone was impossible. But still, that way he could get familiar with his clones and establish levels of orders…like one second-in-command Commander clone, and then different squads…he would definitely come back to this thought later.

"_Would you like me to think of ideas for you?" _the Rinnegan Clone offered, surprising Naruto. The original blonde smiled at the thought. He guessed that he didn't have to do any thinking after all!

"_That would be great! I'm sure you'll know what I want…because we have the same minds…_"

"_Hai. Your team is three minutes away."_

"_Perfect. Dismiss my clones and send me the information that we gathered."_

"_Hai."_

Naruto nodded, opening his eyes and looking at the own area that was in front of him. While it is true that he could see with his normal Rinnegan vision as well as what his clone was seeing, it was actually quite difficult, and he hadn't gotten used to the whole sensation yet. But, practice makes perfect.

Seconds later, all of the hundreds of clones in front of him which were doing various training customs dispersed, and Naruto's mind flooded with the experience of each and every clone. He deeply inhaled as the light-headed feeling passed over him, though his mind cleared moments later. He decided to wait for his teammates to come to him, so he just fell back on the grass and waited.

True to his clone's words, after several minutes Kakashi, Sasuke and Hinata all walked into the clearing and headed over to him. Naruto sat up again and smiled at everyone, waving them hello.

"Hey, everyone!" he greeted, wondering why there were all standing over him and staring at him.

"Yo."

"H-Hello, Naruto-kun!"

"Hn."

…silence. Naruto stared back at them, waiting for an explanation for their arrival. After a few moments, Kakashi cleared his throat and leaned forward on his crutches.

"So," he began to explain, eye-smiling down at Naruto. "We need to train together as a team more, so I decided that Sasuke and Hinata will be using your clones as well to work on their techniques and whatever else I decide to teach you guys," Kakashi briefed.

Naruto shrugged under his mask, smiling.

"Sure, why not?" he decided, thinking on how it would benefit his team more. "How many clones should I create?"

Kakashi looked up in his brain, trying to think of what would be best.

"Well, let's see…how many can you create?"

"Enough." That earned a Naruto a chuckle from the silver-haired ninja.

"Alright, alright. How about thirty for Hinata, and thirty for Sasuke?" he guessed, wondering if Naruto in fact could successfully make that amount.

Naruto nodded his head, and stood up, forming his signature seal, pushing chakra through his hands.

Instantly, exactly sixty clones appeared behind him, all standing regularly, waiting for further orders. Kakashi nodded; clearly impressed that Naruto was able to make the perfect amount.

"Split up with the clones and go to your separate area," Kakashi instructed, giving them the go sign. Sasuke nodded first and jumped off into the woods, with thirty of the clones following him. Hinata merely stayed where she was, and thirty clones stepped up in front of her, of course all smiling at her, which was causing her already to redden.

Kakashi eye smiled contentedly and pulled out a familiar orange book. "Perfect! All see you guys in a few with some new training material!" With that, he vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving an annoyed Naruto behind.

"Man, that's pretty lazy of him!" Naruto complained, putting his hands behind his head and looking upward. After a moment of silence, he looked back in front of him and saw that all of his clones were staring at him, along with Hinata.

"Um, what are we supposed to do?" one of the clones asked, earning the nods of every other clone in agreement.

Naruto shrugged. "Not sure. Why don't you start off as being Jyuuken targets for Hinata so she can get used to closing off the points of a moving target?"

Another clone whined at that. "Seriously?" he complained, not looking happy, "That's gonna hurt like hell!"

Naruto was unmoved. "So? If you can avoid her, then avoid her! I bet you'd rather have Hinata train with you than Sasuke and his fireballs."

There were thirty unanimous nods of agreement before they turned back to Hinata. "So do you want one target first, or…?"

Naruto smiled and walked away, giving himself more space from the scene. He had his own training to work on after all. Walking about thirty meters away from where Hinata was, he plopped down on the grass, and reached inside his blue tunic, pulling out a special scroll titled Elemental Techniques. The scroll itself was organized by the elements themselves. Naruto had looked through the entire scroll several times before, and he found out that it had many different sections specializing on the elements. Each section held many different basic and advanced techniques; there was a page for _wind, water, earth, force, fire, _and_ lightning_. After these sections was a combination section, where there were really, _really_ cool techniques where different elements where combined for deadly effect.

But of course, the beginning of the scroll had mentioned that before you could move on to the different combination techniques, you had to master the elements. Also, before you could work on the Elemental Taijutsu scroll, Naruto had to master the corresponding element.

In short, Naruto was disappointed to find out that he wouldn't be learning any combination techniques anytime soon. Or _water, earth, force, fire _and _lightning _techniques. Before, when he had wanted to try it out and ignore the warning, Naruto went to the fire section in attempts to learn a cool jutsu that would blow things up. Well, he got what he wanted, but not in a good way. After completing the described seals and pushing chakra into his hands, he was rewarded with several sparks that lit up around him before the area directly in front of him exploded. If he wasn't gifted with extraordinary healing, he would be embarrassed to explain to everyone why there were burn marks all over his body.

Naruto decided to listen to the scrolls advice and not learn any advanced jutsu until he mastered the elemental affinity…well, for a certain time. He tried to use _Shinra Tensei, _which was listed in the scroll, but the result was even worse than before. He was rewarded with absolutely nothing! And when he would try to use big water techniques, the same thing happened, which was nothing.

Naruto shook his head and stared down at the scroll in front of him. He had _thought _that he had mastered _wind_, but oh, how naïve he was. Being confident in himself, he skipped to the section for _master _wind techniques. The first one shown was how to form a pretty basic air blast without any hand-seals. But when Naruto tried it, all he got was a gust of wind strong enough to blow out a birthday candle from his hands.

So, he was back at the beginners section of the scroll, re-reading the basics of his element. He had learned (the hard way) that no element or jutsu is mastered until you can do your techniques without hand-seals. He had to start from very basic 'using your wind chakra to cut a leaf', which, using his Rinnegan, took him only minutes to learn. By now he was on how to produce several low rank wind attacks without hand-seals. No, he couldn't just stick his hands out and produce a tornado. There were specific body movements that had to accompany it, big and small. The element of wind was all about circular movements, so sometimes Naruto would perform a small circle with his arms to create a blast, or create simultaneous blasts by taking a two 180 degree steps forward, making a circle.

The scroll was quite valuable. Even if you had one affinity, you could learn insanely powerful techniques of it. However, if someone else discovered it and wanted to steal it, they would be disappointed to find out that it could only be read with a Rinnegan activated. Naruto discovered this when he offered Sasuke to read the _fire_ section of it. Sasuke accepted, though only to discover that he couldn't read it at all. In fact, neither could Hinata, or Kakashi, or anyone else! Why that sword master Shujinko would have two 'Rinnegan only' scrolls, Naruto couldn't even begin to-

"Chief."

Naruto looked up from the scroll and saw that he was surrounded by his five Rinnegan clones which he had created several hours ago to go and read up on several things. "Report", he said, waiting to hear the information they had learned.

"Each one of us learned a lot, actually," the clone that had first spoke responded, "do it might be easier to just send you the information mentally."

Naruto nodded, and seconds later, his brain was flooded by images and facts, causing him to squint his eyes in concentration to collect all of it. After another several seconds, he stood up and shook his head. "Wow," he responded, trying to comprehend it all.

The clones nodded in agreement of Naruto's response before they dismissed themselves. There was a lot more about the shadow clone technique then Naruto had originally thought. Who would've guessed that-?

"Naruto!"

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted once again when Sasuke yelled out his name from behind him, causing the blonde to turn around to look in question.

"More clones!" he bluntly said with a smirk on his face, causing Naruto to smirk as well. If Sasuke wanted to work off his clones so much, he would give the Uchiha a surprise!

Naruto formed the seal once more, and he summoned another thirty clones for Sasuke, who left off with them shortly after.

_______________

_Ten Minutes Later_

"What the _hell_, Naruto-teme!" Sasuke yelled at him, though the blonde was rolling on the ground laughing. Sasuke was currently covered in ash and his hair seemed to be smoking, giving him quite the comical look.

"Why the hell would you make one of the clones _explode _when I punched it?!" he questioned, preparing to attack Naruto.

The Rinnegan user only smiled in response to Sasuke's anger. "I just thought that you need to be more aware of your fighting," he pointed out. "After all, with your Sharingan, you should've been able to spot out the one clone that was explosive!"

Sasuke hn'd, embarrassed that Naruto had a point. "Teme! Just make me some more!"

Naruto shrugged, and formed his seal once more. This time, he created double the amount of clones, so sixty of them followed Sasuke back into the forest. He also created about five explosive clones for him, so that he would have to take his time in which attacks he used.

Sighing to himself, Naruto decided to go and check on Hinata and see how she was doing with his clones, and if she needed him to make more. He walked over a little bit, and looked over the hill, and was surprised to see Hinata…surrounded by exactly thirty clones, parrying each one that was attacking her, though she wasn't striking back.

"Er, Hinata-chan," Naruto called out to her, causing all of the audience to look up to Naruto. "You're supposed to actually _hit_ the clone!" he said, wondering why none of them had dispersed. The young Hyuuga blushed and nodded quickly, beginning to fight back against the clones, dispersing the occasional one.

Naruto sighed again and walked back over to where he was sitting down before. When his Rinnegan Clones had passed him the information, he had been surprised. Very surprised.

Apparently, he could actually change the complete appearance of each and every clone he created, and 'save' that clone by placing a special seal on its body, so that he could summon it again and deal with the same one. Naruto frowned thoughtfully, and activated his Rinnegan, forming the Kage Bunshin seal. He began to funnel a massive amount of chakra within his body, and he tried pushing as much as he possibly could into his hand-seals. He began pushing so much of his Rinnegan's chakra into the seal that it almost felt like his chakra coils were going to break.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he actually yelled out, enjoying the relieving feeling of the chakra finally escaping his body. A cloud of smoke appeared in front of him, and he was pleased to see a Rinnegan clone appear from the smoke.

Naruto was going to start off making his own, military squad, you could say, of his shadow clones. So he started off by making one Rinnegan clone with as much chakra as he could manage, to be his second-in-command. According to what he had absorbed, the more chakra he put into a clone, the more durable, intelligent, and so on it became. Naruto could probably punch the clone for a minute or two before it would actually disperse. Not only that, but it would adopt as body system much like a regular human, since it was durable. It would breath, eat, and bleed, just like him.

Literally, though, the clone did look just like him…no different from any other clone he made…

"Alright," Naruto started, speaking to his clone. "You are my second-in-command clone, who will also be in charge of all of my forces. Congratulations!" Naruto said, trying to be somewhat goofy.

The clone merely bowed his head in thanks. "Arigatou, Naruto-sama," he spoke in a voice identical to Naruto's, though lacking the humor.

Naruto nodded, already liking the way _sama _sounded on his name.

"Great! So, I think you need a name," Naruto continued, scratching his head with confusion. He was not that good at making names, and he kinda felt like a parent at the moment. "Um…you're a _commander_ clone, so why don't I just call you...Shirei?!"

The clone nodded in a serious manner. "Hai. My name is Shirei."

Naruto nodded as well, taking note of his clone's serious tone and personality. He liked it a lot.

"Very well. Shirei, I think I'm gonna change your looks too to separate you from normal clones," Naruto continued, "Do you have any preferences?"

Shirei looked thoughtful for a moment, but he eventually made up his mind. "I would prefer my hair to be black," he said, "as well as my Rinnegan. For that matter, each Rinnegan clone you make should be separated with a different color. And, if you're going to play the role of God, why not make me physically stronger and faster? And don't forget to change the color of my tunic to black as well as my under-armor."

Naruto nodded, completely agreeing with his clone. "I'll make your hair somewhat longer than mine, too. Here I go!"

Forming his signature seals again, Naruto pushed chakra into his technique and aimed it toward the clone he had already created. He had learned that just like he could henge himself, he could henge his clone, though it would be permanent on them. Just like before, a cloud of smoke erupted around Shirei, the clone in front of him, and when it cleared, Naruto's eyes widened at his work of art.

Just like he had planned, Shirei had black hair that was slightly longer than his. He was surprised to see that his Rinnegan was black as well as the tunic he was wearing, with his mask. Also, Naruto could notice that Shirei's muscles were slightly more muscular than his own, just like he had thought of when changing him. Oh, the wonders of the Shadow Clone!

Shirei looked at himself, and nodded in appreciation. "Naruto-sama, I advise you to perfect your Shadow Clone technique even further." Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion at this.

"The cloud of smoke that comes up every time you use this technique as well as the popping sound is exceedingly redundant. A perfected summoning should be silent, with only an unnoticeable shimmer of wind. If you were on a stealth mission and needed to be silent, you would be unable to create clones do to its brashness."

Naruto nodded, once again completely agreeing with the clone. Of course he already knew this, but he decided to postpone that training until later. He guessed that he would spend the week perfecting that as well.

"Also," Shirei continued, "if you are creating further clones I advise you to give them a different variety of weapons. If they were to attack the same enemy, the enemy would have a harder time defending against different weapons as opposed to the katana that you and I have."

Naruto agreed, making a mental note to do that the next time he created a permanent clone. "Now, I need to make sure I can summon you specifically. Let me see if I can remember the seal I had learned…"

Naruto looked back into his mind, using his Rinnegan, and he mentally scanned over the seals that were engraved into his memory. When he found the one that he desired, he pushed it forward in his mind until it was in his eyesight. Carefully, he projected it forward until it was on the chest of the clone in front of him.

"Cast!" Naruto yelled out, forming a hand-seal to use his chakra precisely. The seal in Naruto's mind suddenly glowed in the center of Shirei before it disappeared, leaving nothing.

After several moments, Naruto stared at his clone curiously. "Well, did it work?" he asked, unsure as to how he would know if it did. Shirei was about to shrug when he felt a slight sparking feeling on his shoulder. Trying to inquire what it was, he lifted his black sleeve up and was surprised to find a black tattoo of a spiral on his upper shoulder, right at the top of his arm.

"Whoa," Shirei stated, shocked at the new image he had engraved on his body. Naruto smiled, satisfied that the first part had worked. Now, all he needed to do was test it out and see if it really worked!

"Let's try it out!" Naruto said, clapping his hands together in excitement. "Disperse yourself and let's see if I can summon you!"

Shirei nodded and was about to disperse when a sudden idea came to his mind.

"Naruto-sama, can I make one more request?" he asked, showing a slight glint of mischief in his eyes. Naruto shrugged, waiting for him to continue.

"How about a pair of dark sunglasses, you know, to completely separate me from other clones?"

Naruto snorted at the idea but agreed nonetheless, forming his clone seal once more. In a small puff of smoke which covered Shirei's face, dark sunglasses appeared on his face, causing him to smile before he dispersed.

Naruto shook his head once more, smiling to himself at the antics of his clone. But one thing was true, with the clones black sunglasses, hair and tunic, he did look pretty badass! Naruto formed the seal once more, and imagined in his mind Shirei. Trying to find the right amount of chakra to summon, he opened his Rinnegan eyes and-

_Poof!_

"Yo, Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened as he screamed and fell backwards, surprised at the appearance of Kakashi sensei right in front of him. Kakashi merely laughed at the misfortune of his student, closing his favorite book of his and helping Naruto off the ground.

"I have some new material for you guys to study over this little break of ours," he explained, eye-smiling.

__________

"So here's the thing," Kakashi explained, with his three students in front of him. He gave Sasuke a curious look when he noticed that the Uchiha was nearly smoldering, covered in ash, which he was responded with a muffled 'hn'. "Last time I taught you guys on a training mission, it was on two specific jutsu, the Assimilation Technique, and the Camouflage technique, which, might I add, still aren't perfected. So this time, I want to teach you all ninja skills, instead of specific jutsu. I think there's a phrase about that, something like: Give a man a fish, he has food for a night, but teach the man how to fish, and he has food for life."

Kakashi was responded with three blank stares. He scratched the back of his head nervously, clearing his throat.

"Or maybe teach a ninja a jutsu, and he has one attack, but teach a ninja how to learn jutsu on their own, and they have an entire life ahead of them to learn more." The three students nodded thoughtfully, catching on with his thought process.

"Um, going on, I think teaching you all team skills will better your chances, per say in the Chunin Exams which will be coming up shortly after we make it back to Konoha.

"You three have great teamwork, or at least the potential to comply with each other, so it would be beneficial to improve on that. You all saw firsthand that you three were able to take on a clone of Zabuza's when you were functioning properly. But that's not good enough! You three are too strong for that. Together, you should be able to nearly take on Zabuza himself! You're all too strong individually to have to stand out on the sidelines and hope for the best! So, starting today, I'm going to only advise you on what you all should do, but you_ will _learn how to fight as a team.

"I, or actually, my clone, will be your opponent. And my clone will be fighting back as hard as it can, that is, unless you think Zabuza will be going easy on you when we meet him next."

He was glad to see three undisputed nods from his Genin. "Good, I hope you take this training seriously. Our first situation will be stealth battling. I am going to be standing in different spots, and you three must sneak up on me and engage me, ending the battle as quickly as possible. If you don't subdue me in under a minute, then you fail the activity and then you must all do thirty push-ups before starting it again. Tomorrow, we'll move on to upon combat, and so on and so forth. You'll either win, as a team, or lose, as a team."

Kakashi continued to hold a stern face at the shocked look of the students. He couldn't help but imagine his own team of himself, Obito and Rin standing before him, just like when his own sensei first told them about this special training. They were lucky they were just fighting his clone, and not him. Luckier than his old team, at least. Fighting Minato-sensei was not one bit fun unless you enjoyed bruises.

"I'll start by standing here in the clearing. Oh, and you have four minutes each segment to think of a plan, and one minute to actually execute it, so this should be fast paced. Begin!"

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata disappeared from sight as they jumped away in chakra burst, coming together to think of their plan.

* * *

_Unknown Location_

Pain crossed his legs comfortably as he sat on the throne of the Leader of Akatsuki. His orange Rinnegan eyes seemed to almost glow in the dimly lit room, giving them their own sense of power. He had summoned _Silent_, the true assassin of the organization, to report upon his mission on this time. He had no doubts that this…special ninja would get the job done, and get it done as his name suggests, silently.

Nagato respected the ninja to a certain degree, and, in that specific degree, he feared him as well. There were two members who Nagato did not know if he was stronger than them or not; one was Obito Uchiha. Pain was shocked when he discovered that Obito had unlocked the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan somehow or another. With his own advanced Rinnegan, he could tell the power which radiated from Obito's eyes, and the sheer _evil_ which came from it as well. When he had fought against him, Obito had only used his right eye with the mask attached, and Pain had no idea what power the other eye held.

_Silent _was the other Akatsuki member who caused Pain to worry. Unlike the other members, Pain didn't need to send _Silent _with a partner to go and assassinate a strong opponent. No matter the strength of the person who he fought, _Silent _had managed to find and kill the person within a very short period of time. From there, _Silent _would give the body to Zetsu who turned it in for money. Pain had discovered _Silent_'s power when he had sent Zetsu to spy on him. Aside from himself and Obito, Zetsu was the fastest member of Akatsuki who could travel great distances in a short amount of time and remain undetected while doing it. So when he saw _Silent _fight, he was impressed and reported everything to Nagato.

Taking a deep breath, Pain closed his eyes as he felt a new chakra force enter the castle, though it was nearly unnoticeable. Surely enough, when he exhaled and opened his eyes, he found _Silent_ kneeling before his throne. Had he relied on his ears, Pain would have no idea that the man had even entered.

"Report."

_Silent _stood up and looked toward Nagato. Being the only member with a hood over his face instead of a high collar, Nagato had difficulty seeing his eyes.

"Kintaro is dead and nobody will know for days. Zetsu is possession of the body now."

Pain nodded, expecting such an answer. "Very well," he said, preparing to dismiss him. However, before he opened his mouth, a thought entered his mind, and he spoke it to the man before him.

"Where do your loyalties lie?" Pain asked, his Rinnegan eyes boring into the man.

For the first time he could remember, Pain heard _Silent _chuckle quietly before responding.

"Loyalty? Such a word is meaningless to me."

Pain nodded again, also expecting the answer. Perhaps…perhaps he would have…greater use of this assassin later on.

"Very well, you are dismissed."

* * *

_Tazuna's Bridge_

Gaara leaned coolly against the railing of the bridge as he waited for further orders. He and his team had been watching over Tazuna as the builder and his small work crew continued their progress on the bridge. The runaway Sand ninja had put his elemental skills to good use, and he had been used excessively for creating platforms and bridges, or even heavy lifting, such as the massive metal beam he had let down a moment ago for the grateful workers. His teammate Sai as well had been using his artful skills to create manners of transportation for heavy objects. His other teammate, however, had spent most of her time distracting him, which she had quite a talent-

"Hey! Gaara-kun!" Kairi called out, running over to him and tackling him with a bone crushing hug which caused him to flinch very hard. It didn't matter how long he had been with his best friend, or how many times she hugged him, he still wasn't used to any sort of contact. Other than Kairi, his sand would automatically block everyone else away, after all.

"So…how are you doing?" she asked him in a light manner, leaning right next to him on the railing. Her white hair blew ever so lightly in the wind as she turned her head to look up at him, smiling as usual.

Gaara sighed, not even turning to look at her, which he had found annoyed her to a certain extent. But, he would go out of his way to annoy Kairi just to get back at her for always bugging him.

"Just as good as the last time you saw me, which couldn't have been more than five minutes ago," he responded, earning himself a small giggle from her. He turned his head and noticed that she too was leaning on the rail. "I see you've gotten over your fear of heights," he pointed out, noticing that it was a pretty long drop into the water below.

Kairi smiled at Gaara again, though this time she punched him in the arm, once more causing him to flinch. "Yeah, I have! It doesn't matter though, 'cause you'd save me if I couldn't help myself!" she pointed out in return, smirking at the shocked look Gaara would always get whenever she punched him.

Gaara rolled the pain in his shoulder away, scoffing at his silver-haired friend. "Whatever. Don't you have work to do?" he asked, giving her an annoyed look.

"Don't you two have work to do?" Anko asked loudly, walking by them carrying a cinderblock on her shoulder. "I expected Kairi to slack, but I'm surprised that you aren't pulling your fair share of work, Gaara," Anko said, walking by him with a disappointed look. Gaara sighed deeply, now giving Kairi another annoyed look as she began laughing at his expense.

* * *

_One Week Later, Training Grounds_

Naruto stood next to Shirei, his commander Rinnegan Clone, in front of four other clones. He knew that he could only split his Rinnegan, in a way, into six other 'beings' aside from himself. He didn't really understand why, but he decided to make himself five different squads, with a Rinnegan clone in charge in each squad. So, like he did with Shirei, he decided to customize each Rinnegan clone he had so that he would be able to recognize them not only by names, but looks. Sure enough, he had been able to successfully been able to summon Shirei again, by merely thinking of the clone and the seal he placed on him.

The next clone he had created was named Endo. He was around the same height as Naruto, though instead of having yellow hair with a yellow Rinnegan, he had scarlet hair with a red outfit and a matching scarlet Rinnegan. When he had first created the clone, he had been expecting a focused and obedient clone much like Shirei, but he was surprised to find out that this clone was more…fierce and ferocious. Naruto had intended to make a frontal attack force, a unit with strong clones meant for physical attacking. Maybe it was that he was originally thinking of a war-like clone when he created Endo, because that is exactly what he produced. Still, the clone technically was a clone of himself, so he still wasn't all business all the time.

The second lesser commander he created was strangely…happy and much less mission-focused than his other two, so in a way, he most represented the actual Naruto, himself. However, he was also the calmest of all of them, and inhabited a 'monk' like personality. He was also the same height of Naruto, but his main 'color theme', as Naruto had come to begin think of it, was white. That meant white hair, Rinnegan, clothes, mask, and so on. And yes, all of his clones wore masks (after all, they had to keep up the reputation). This clone's name was Jiyuu, and he was in charge of the elemental jutsu portion of Naruto's soon-to-be future clone squad.

The third clone Naruto put extra effort into was named Ryozo. Ryozo had specially been made to be in charge of the special assassination and tactical squad (something for which Naruto would have to officially name later; he felt like stealing the name from Anbu wouldn't be original), and he was a master of stealth (or at least he would train to be over time, just like the rest of his clones would). Ryozo was somewhat arrogant and smooth, not unlike from Sasuke, Naruto had to admit. Also, Ryozo had been upset that his color theme couldn't be black, so he settled with dark purple. The clones he would be in charge of would be all super charged in a way so that they could manage to do both ninjutsu as well as taijutsu.

The clone jutsu was so magnificent and specific in its many ways. Naruto couldn't just sup up one clone any more than he did with his original commander, Shirei. But what he could do, instead of allowing his clones to be mediocre in every subject of fighting, he could make a 'special' clone, which excelled in one particular subject. Of course, all of his Rinnegan clones would be much stronger than any other normal clone he could make, but still, each clone the Rinnegan clone would be in charge of would specialize in a ninja art. For example, he could design a clones chakra to be exceptional in ninjutsu, though they would disperse if they would be hit once. On the other hand, he could make very durable clones that couldn't perform ninjutsu.

Finally, Naruto's eyes came to rest on his last clone, and he couldn't help but slightly flinch. After making his first four clones, Jiyuu, the white haired and 'peaceful' clone, had come up with the idea of making a _girl _clone. A girl!!! Naruto would've laughed the idea off if Shirei hadn't thought it was a good idea, for 'clone diversity' as he had put it. Funny enough, the two other Rinnegan clones, Endo and Ryozo, had agreed as well. So, Naruto now had clone diversity. Before him was what he would call a girl version of himself, with brown hair, a big smile, six identical-to-Naruto whisker marks, and a brown outfit with white pants and sandals. All of his other clones as well had white pants similar to Naruto's, with the exception of Shirei, who had decided to go all black. This girl clone of his had decided to go with the name of Natsumi, a traditional Japanese name meaning summer beauty.

Naruto had always thought that when he created a clone, he would create a mind exactly similar to his own who thought the same thoughts as he did. However, he found out that the clones had completely different thoughts than he did. He had originally thought that creating a girl version of him would be just creepy because she would think like him, a boy! But is seemed like this girl Rinnegan clone was…actually a girl!…And now that he thought about it, his other clones weren't really like him, with the slight exception of Jiyuu, who was also looking on the bright side. All of the clones he made had their own minds, the type that he thought of when he created them. Of course, they would keep Naruto's basic thoughts, such as a love for ramen, because even when Naruto was thinking of a girl clone, he didn't change his thought of ramen.

…If he had known about this earlier, that he could create a clone with a generally different mind than his own, he would've made a genius clone that would give him ever Academy answer he needed…and do his homework for him…damn, he _really_ should've thought of this earlier.

"So, how should I start this?" Naruto asked mostly to himself, rubbing his hands together and looking at his Rinnegan clones who were all staring back at him with different expressions: serious, mischievous, arrogant, and happy. He flinched again when his eyes landed on his _girl_ clone of himself, which caused her to huff her long brown hair out of her face.

"Um, Natsumi," he said, scratching the back of his head somewhat nervously. Oh, boy, what was his problem? Sometimes he just couldn't function that properly around girls. He absentmindedly wondered if Natsumi had all of her…you know, _girl parts_…God, this was weird…

"Hai, Naruto-sama!" she responded in a girly voice…suitable for a girl, though still smiling.

Naruto eye smiled at her as he tried to focus normally in front of this female. Perhaps he would loosen up over time. "Well, um… you kinda have to wear a mask," he mentioned, tugging on his own absentmindedly. "It's like a theme, kinda, sorta."

She huffed again, and put her hands on her hips, frowning at Naruto.

"But I'm a girl!" she responded, as if that explained everything, pouting at Naruto. Naruto's face blanked and he looked at his other clones, almost for support, even though he was the leader of the group. Endo, the serious war-like clone, was attempting to keep a straight face, though Naruto noticed that his lips were twitching upwards curiously. Jiyuu, the monk clone, was now openly laughing, throwing his head back while Natsumi sent him a nasty look. Ryozo, the Sasuke-clone (in a way) was smirking at Natsumi, chuckling while shaking his head.

Finally, Shirei broke the awkward silence by crossing his arms firmly and glaring down at Natsumi through his impenetrable black glasses. "Natsumi, you will obey the will of the Chief, no matter what it is! And you will do it _without _hesitation!" he coolly hissed out, making Naruto wonder whether he was actually mad or not.

Natsumi 'hn'd and crossed her own arms, leaning back and pulling up her brown mask over her face. "Who put you in charge, grumpy?" she answered back, causing Shirei's eyebrows to scrunch together in aggravation.

"The _Creator _did, and don't forget that!" he said in such a low voice it made Naruto somewhat flinch. It made him feel really special though, the utter loyalty Shirei seemed to give him. It kinda felt like he had his own body guard. Ha! Soon enough, he would have his own _army_!

"But brown is such an ugly color!" she continued to complain, looking back at Naruto after sending Shirei a death glare. "Can't I at least where something…more colorful?" she inquired, hoping to get what she wanted.

Naruto merely shrugged, not really understanding why it mattered what color she got. Maybe being a girl _really_ did mean they had such different minds!

"Sure! What color would you like?" he asked, ignoring the aggravated look Shirei had on his face.

Natsumi smiled at him and responded, "I want to change my outfit to green!" she asked, holding her hands in prayer. Naruto shrugged, and after holding together his custom seal, Natsumi's clothes shimmered for a moment before they instantly turned green, earning a nod of approval from Shirei. Over the week, Naruto had been practicing in his free time how to be able to silently summon the shadow clones without the need of the large and loud smoke cloud. Now, to a certain extent, he can summon a fair amount of clones silently, with only a shimmer of wind to reveal their presence. He was quite proud of this achievement, especially being able to do so with all of the grueling training Kakashi had been putting them through.

"Thank you, Naruto-sama!" Natsumi said in appreciation, not forgetting to stick her tongue out at Shirei before she pulled her mask over her face. Her hair was still brown, but now she had a pretty green outfit!

"Alright, moving right along," Naruto continued, his attention now being focused at the entire group. "I'm going to be assigning you all responsibilities, most of which you already know.

"Endo," he started, turning to his red-haired clone. "You will be in charge of the frontal attacking force. The clones I will make for you will be durable and specially made to be good in combat with above average taijutsu and kenjutsu skills. They will also be able to withstand a few hits before they disperse. But, on the downside, they won't be able to perform ninjutsu. Now, as you know, you have enough chakra within yourself to be able to summon and create these clones, so I'll give you a special seal to do that after I make them."

Endo nodded, waiting for Naruto to continue. Rolling his neck around, Naruto formed his favorite hand-seal and pushed a large amount of his chakra into the seal. Because his Rinnegan was activated, a pale glow of gold surrounded his body as the special chakra was pushed into the seal.

Instantly, around two hundred regular clones of Naruto shimmered into existence in the field in front of him, all looking toward their group of six. Naruto let out a deep breath in relief of the jutsu, and turned his attention back to Endo.

"You will be in charge of the largest amount of clones. I added several explosive clones in the ranks, around twenty, just in case, so make sure you know which ones are which."

Focusing his Rinnegan, Naruto concentrated and placed special seals on each clone, which took about thirty seconds for his eyes to come in contact with each one. Naruto's eyes targeted each one, and when he casted the jutsu, a spiral became engraved into each of the clones shoulders. Then, turning to Endo, he gave his commander a special seal as well to be able to summon his own ranks.

"Right!" he said, clapping his own hands together. "Endo, dismiss your clones. Actually, we'll start calling these guys 'fighters' from now on. If you want, you can personalize each clone, even though there are a lot of them."

Endo nodded, waving his arm which caused each clone to silently disperse. Naruto then turned to his next clone.

"Jiyuu," he said to the white haired clone, "you will be in charge of the ninjutsu clones. All I kinda know now is _wind _techniques, but I'm hoping that will change over time."

Naruto formed his seal once more, and like before, he created multiple clones. These clones, however, were trickier to make. Because he needed to give them more chakra, for their ninjutsu, he ended up making only around 70. This number was significantly lower than his previous amount, but, after all, he wanted to make sure the clones didn't disperse after using just one jutsu. On the bad side, these clones were much more delicate than the fighter clones, so they would most likely disperse with a single hit.

"We'll call these guys 'casters'," Naruto said, after placing seals on them and Jiyuu. "You can also personalize anyone you want," Naruto finished, motioning for Jiyuu to dismiss them.

When these clones were gone, Naruto turned to Natsumi and made his hand-seal. An instant later, around 30 clones came into appearance around the group.

"These clones will be used to protect both me, and whoever I need protected. We'll call them…'protectors'! They'll be like my personal guard! When I need them, I want you to make sure they surround me, so I always know what is going on around me, alright?" These clones had a considerable larger amount of chakra, so that they could combine the use of both ninjutsu and taijutsu. But, because of this, Naruto wasn't able to make a lot of them.

Natsumi nodded, and after the sealing process, she happily dismissed her clones. Finally, Naruto turned toward Ryozo, the purple-haired clone of his.

"You will be in charge of the spying assassination group, like the Anbu," Naruto told him, causing Ryozo to smirk. Naruto formed his seal and this time, after difficult exertion, 15 clones appeared around them. These clones would be best for stealth, similar to the previous clones Naruto created, though Naruto took more precaution when making them.

"If I want you to spy on the enemy or give me information on anyone, you guys will do it unnoticed," Naruto instructed, going forward with the sealing process so Ryozo could summon his own clones. When he was done, and the clones were dismissed, he clapped his hands happily, happy that this part was over and quite exhausted, mentally more than physically.

"You all know that Shirei here is my second-in-command, and what he says, goes," Naruto continued, earning him four nods of approval. "He can also summon whatever clones he wants to, as well as you guys. Now, it's time to meet up with my team and train with Kakashi, so let's give them hell!"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

_Later, Forest_

Kakashi's clone sighed in a bored manner as he stood leaning back against a tree, in the middle of the forest. He had instructed his team to stay in the main training grounds while he went to choose a place to hide. They were instructed to find him, create a plan to disperse him, and then fight him, all in five minutes. Four minutes to find him and think of a plan, and one minute to engage and disperse him.

And, not only did they have to disperse him, but they had to disperse the other clone who was hiding close to him. Because Zabuza had an ally, the original (Kakashi) wanted them to be able to fight more than one strong opponent.

The clone shrugged nonchalantly. Having a partner made it better for _him_, as well. In the beginning of the week, Team 7 had been able to find him and disperse in the time limit around half of the times. The other half, they were either unable to disperse him, or unable to do it within the time limit, especially when he chose to flee. But, as the week went on, they began failing less and succeeding more, to the point where they would disperse him nine out of ten times.

The other clone had henge'd into a clone of Zabuza, along with his large sword. This way, they really would be getting better experience in how to-

Kakashi's clone's eye widened and he jumped away from the tree, moments before a katana impaled itself through the back of the tree and out of where he had just been leaning. He cursed to himself, realizing his mistake. After all, he should've suspected that it wouldn't take as long for them to actually find him, due to Hinata's Byakugan, and-

The Clone cursed again as he jumped into the air to avoid the blast of fire that had just been propelled his way. Sailing into the air, the clone's eye darted around, searching for any signs of his attackers, until it landed on Sasuke, who was looking up at him with his crimson Sharingan eyes after casting the fire attack. Quickly, the clone pulled down his own mask, revealing his Sharingan. After all, though it would consume his chakra rapidly, the group only had around 55 seconds left…

Naruto smirked under the cover of the trees, mentally reaching out to his previously created clones.

"_Jiyuu, now!_" he called out to his elemental commander clone, initiating the next step in their plan.

An instant later, multiple torrents of air flew up out of the forest and into the airborne clone, which had no chance of avoiding such a wide-spread attack from all angles aside from protecting his body with chakra covered arms. The result was not strong enough to disperse the clone, though it did significantly push the clone higher into the air, giving it less of a chance to move or fight back.

"_Chief!" _a voice sounded in his head, with Naruto somehow recognizing it as Shirei's. Perhaps he had changed their voices as well…"_There's another clone nearby in the forest, rapidly approaching!_"

Naruto's golden Rinnegan eyes widened at the change of events, realizing he would have to change his plans.

"_Alright, send out a unit of Fighters to distract him until we finish off the first clone_," Naruto instructed, receiving a sharp 'Hai!' in response. Hopefully, that wouldn't be long. After all, if everything went as planned, Kakashi's clones should be dispersed any second now…

Up in the air, Kakashi's clone regained his composure from the powerful impact. _"Since when did Naruto learn_ _such a large wind technique?_" he thought to himself, waiting for his momentum to reverse and gravity to bring him down. However, he never had the chance as his Sharingan eye widened, sensing movement behind him.

Kakashi's clone's head snapped around, just in time to see Hinata fall out of the clouds above him, her palm thrust forward glowing with dangerous looking chakra. Though his eye could see it, he didn't have enough time to bring his hands up to block, resulting in Hinata, slamming right through him, making him instantly disperse.

__________

Kakashi nodded as he received the memories of the first clone. He was surprised that they had managed to dispatch his clone in such a time, which was a record for them. That only meant that his powerful clone didn't have the chance to actually fight back, otherwise it would take a much longer time for Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata to beat him. He had no doubt that his students really where improving."

__________

Sasuke and Naruto charged forward to where Naruto motioned, realizing that there was another clone, which was currently being bombarded by multiple shadow clones of Naruto. The clone itself was apparently henge'd to look like Zabuza, and it was swinging it's sword around, taking down multiple clones with each swipe.

"Thirty seconds left!" Sasuke called out to Naruto, who nodded in return. Quite frankly, Naruto was distracted, noticing how each clone of his actually looked…different. His commanders must have taken his idea of making each clone an individual seriously, and Naruto noticed that the clothes and style of each clone were all different! Suddenly, an idea came to the blonde ninja, and he motioned for Sasuke to halt for a moment, which the Uchiha did.

"_Endo_", Naruto thought out to his Rinnegan clone who was in charge of the Fighters. "_Send in several explosive clones and detonate them around Kakashi!_"

"_Hai._"

Sasuke was about to ask Naruto what he was thinking when the area in front of them exploded violently, causing Sasuke to flinch in surprise. The large blast caused a pulse of wind to travel through the forest, though Naruto still frowned when the smoke began to clear from the area.

"_He's still alive. Twenty seconds._"

When Hinata arrived at the scene, both Naruto and Sasuke were looking up, now noticing the figure of Zabuza who was falling down quickly down on them.

"Spread out!" Naruto shouted to his friends, jumping to backwards while Sasuke and Hinata jumped to the sides. The moment the clone landed, Naruto drew out both of his katana and waited for Sasuke of Hinata to initiate.

"_Water Release: Water Torrent Jutsu!_" Hinata called out first, bringing her hand-seal to her mouth and releasing a power stream of water straight towards the clone. Kakashi's clone of Zabuza managed to block Hinata's attack by spitting out his own stream of water to overpower hers, though it left him open.

Sasuke utilized this opening by throwing several kunai quickly at the clone, though once again the plan was thwarted by the clone swinging his zanbato to deflect the shuriken.

By now, this was more than enough time for Naruto to concentrate his chakra to form another of his favorite techniques, though this one wasn't the shadow clone. The next instant, Naruto used a shunshin to quickly appear in front of Zabuza, and under his range of attack, since he had just swung his arm. Quickly, Naruto thrust both of his katana forward into the clone, who after a moment of shock, dispersed into a puddle of water, falling harmlessly at Naruto's feet.

The three teammates nodded at each other, all of them panting heavily, though they were happy that they had managed to beat Kakashi's practice fight.

* * *

_That Evening_

Haku smiled warily as she was once again welcomed into the Tazuna household, courtesy of Team 11 who had met her in the forest. Believe it or not, she was _not _instructed to spy on them by Zabuza; she was actually there…just because she felt like it. The warm feeling that enveloped her whenever she was surrounded by such a friendly environment was so welcoming, that…

It was a shame that she would have to kill them tomorrow.

Zabuza was fully recovered, and he had made plans to attack the bridge next morning. Haku had to agree that his plan was somewhat shaky, but Kakashi and Tazuna would have to die tomorrow. But, if Haku truly played her part right…she might be able to get away with leaving everyone else alive!

Because Kakashi had outclassed Zabuza that last fight, her sensei had formed a grunge with the silver-haired ninja, and whenever that happened, seldom as it did, the person would be dead within the week. But, Zabuza, bloodthirsty as he could be, wasn't a supporter of senseless murder, and he would tolerate with Haku merely subduing her foes. And that was all she could really hope for.

"You okay there, Haku-san?" Sai asked her, snapping her out of her trance. She humbly nodded with a bow, mentally kicking herself for her strange before. Zabuza wasn't the only one to have recovered. Kakashi Hatake was alive and well, and if for some reason he found out about her true identity…

Her eyes darted around the room quickly. Anko, Kakashi and Tazuna were happily chatting about something or the other, Tazuna's daughter Tsunami was busily cooking dinner, Gaara and Kairi were leaning against a nearby wall, and Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were-

_Slam!_

"First!" Naruto shouted, tumbling into the room with an improvised somersault. Sasuke tumbled in on top of Naruto, coming in an instant after Naruto.

"There's no way!" the Uchiha complained, pushing off the ground and standing over Naruto. "Clearly, I entered first!"

As the two argued on, Haku noticed the third member of their team quietly walk in, silently smiling at the antics of her two friends, which caused Haku to frown. She really wondered what it would feel like to have two best friends, or even just _one_ friend. They always seemed to be having fun around each other, smiling and laughing together as if they didn't know that they could die any day!

"Oh, hey there, Haku!" Naruto greeted, after Sasuke deferring from the argument, calling it stupid and pointless.

"Ohayo, Naruto-san," she greeted back, politely bowing to him, which in return he gave her a confused face.

"So, what's for dinner?" Sasuke smoothly asked, gliding to his spot at the table, sitting next to Kakashi. "Smells like fish."

Tsunami scoffed at the ninja's comment but nodded nonetheless. "Yes, we are having fish. Hinata dear, would you mind helping me season the fish?" she asked, earning an eager nod from the Hyuuga who happily jumped up to assist Tsunami in her favorite hobby.

Haku's eyes darted in surprise to the door when it began to open once more. Surprisingly enough, a teenager with black hair and sunglasses (despite it not being bright outside) walked in the room, clothed entirely in black, and masked up to his eyes. With the black tunic outfit and katana strapped across his back, this guy figuratively screamed out 'ninja assassin', and Haku would have jumped to defend herself if she didn't first notice the lack of reaction from everyone else.

Strangely, some people in the room did have a reaction to the intruder.

"Um, guys?" Kairi asked, pointing to the figure that had just entered. She looked at the uncaring expression on Gaara's face. Sai too was looking strangely at the new person.

"Who's that?" he asked for her, motioning at the person.

Naruto smiled and slung his arm around Shirei's shoulders, earning no emotional reaction from the clone. After all, with his dark shades, you couldn't see much of him anyway.

"Oh, him? This is Shirei, my strongest Rinnegan Clone! He's the second-in-command of my clone ops!"

Well, that certainly raised a bunch of questions. Haku made sure to pay attention as each person in the room (who didn't already know about this) asked questions about what Naruto was talking about. This information was vital, and it would be especially helpful to them during the oncoming battle!

"Hn! He's not that cool," Sasuke shrugged it off, unwilling to admit that he actually did think it was cool. Insanely cool. Well, if he didn't have enough chakra yet to create as many clones as Naruto could and remain standing, he had to do what he could do best, which was piss Naruto off.

Well, what Sasuke intended worked, and Naruto began furiously explaining to the 'uncaring' Sasuke how cool his clones all were, with Hinata silently backing him up while she was cooking. Everything was back to normal in the room, and Haku was able to relax, before her attention was once again diverted to a new person entering the large room. It was certainly getting crowded in here!

"It doesn't matter!" a childish voice sounded out from the stairways leading upstairs, gaining the immediate attention of everyone. "Nothing does! You're all gonna die anyway! Gato is too strong! He'll kill all of you…just like…just like he killed…"

The mood in the room completely reverted as a palpable cloud of gloom floated in along with young Inari. Silence was the only response that the fiery eyed boy was greeted with, for a dramatically long time where Haku could swear that if the stove wasn't sizzling, she could hear a senbon drop. She unconsciously held tightly on to her supply so to avoid that from happening.

Finally, it was Tsunami who was the one to break the deathly silence, trying miserably to laugh off the situation with a half-effort chuckle. "Come on, Inari, you don't really mean that! These ninja here are strong and they'll be able to protect your grandpa until he finishes the-"

"That doesn't matter!" Inari shouted back, sick to his guts with all of the happy attitude that was circulating through the house. "Gato will win, bridge or no bridge! Gato always wins!"

Naruto's mind was rapidly spinning as he attempted to quickly find a way to rid of the negativity that so easily destroyed the evening mood. "Ha! That's what you say, kid," he scoffed, feigning his happy tone. "Leave the job to us ninja, and-" His words cut off as he saw the way Inari was grinding his teeth together and clenching the bottom of his shirt. Hinata, whose eyes had been darting back and forth between Naruto and Inari, finally chose to step in, trying to follow Naruto's example, like she always tried.

"Ano, Inari-san," she tried comforting, "it's alright, really! We're all strong ninja, and we'll be able to-"

"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" Inari screamed, unleashing his pent up anger of the past week on poor Hinata. "Don't talk to me like I'm some sort of a baby! I've been through more than you can imagine! I know what's going on here more than any of you happy-go-lucky Konoha ninja! You may be able to return to your peaceful village, but we don't get to! We have to stay here in this hell, with Gato still out there! You don't understand what it's like to suffer! You don't know what it's like to have someone loved suddenly stripped away from you!" he shouted at Hinata, whose eyes were wide with shock.

"None of you understand that-!"

Inari was unable to finish his ranting when he suddenly found a hand restricting his throat, and gold Rinnegan eyes boring into his very soul.

He was then somehow lifted into the air with what felt like unbelievable strength, and it was all he could do to hold on to Naruto's arm in attempts to get gasps of breath in. He was hearing shouting around the room, but all of that rapidly began to fade to silence until all he could see was the two gigantic spiral eyes in front of him, and the voice of a very pissed off Naruto.

"Bore me all you want with your sob stories," Naruto ordered, time stopping around them. Inari could swear Naruto was glowing with a gold aura. "But the second you start shouting at one of my _friends_…"

Naruto didn't finish the sentence, but Inari could have easily completed it for him. Just as quickly as Naruto had appeared, the golden orbs disappeared and sound began to return to the world as Inari was dropped to the ground, gasping for breath.

He looked up, seeing Naruto being held back by the silver haired man from before, who was looking just as angry as Naruto was. He looked to the side and he saw the other sensei woman holding back the other male teammate of Naruto. After some more shouting and yelling, Naruto finally snapped out of Kakashi's grip and silently left the house, with the black haired ninja wearing sunglasses following him.

"I'm very sorry for my student's behavior," he heard the silver-haired one say, bowing politely to both his mother and his grandpa. "As a ninja, he should know who to control his emotions better."

Tazuna walked up to Kakashi and friendly patted him on the back. "Ah, it's alright, Kakashi-san. With the bridge so close to being completed, everyone is a little…pent up. Naruto's risked his life more than once for me, so I can easily forgive him for getting angry. Why don't we all just enjoy dinner together and cool off?" he questioned, clapping his hands together, embarrassed at the way his grandson had behaved.

Inari simply shook his head and ran upstairs, before slamming a door behind him very audibly.

__________

"Don't you think you overacted?" Shirei questioned, standing next to Naruto who was currently slumped on a tree branch in the middle of the nearby forest. "Judging by the way your sensei restrained you, attacking your client's son doesn't seem like something I would suggest."

Naruto shrugged, not wanting to think about it logically. "I don't care about that. All I know is that that kid was yelling at Hinata, who didn't do anything but try to help the situation. No one yells at my teammates like that, especially when I'm right in front of them!"

Now Shirei shrugged, confused at Naruto's logic but accepting it nonetheless. "Fine. Let's just hope something like that won't get you fired. How would Sasuke and Hinata feel if you all failed an important mission because of your uncontrolled outburst?"

Naruto frowned, obviously not thinking about that. All he saw was Inari yelling and Hinata's face and he had sort of lost it. He didn't even realize that he had his Rinnegan activated, and he had no idea how he could subconsciously activate it anyways. What was it with bloodline limits and anger anyways?

"I hope that doesn't happen…"

"You're damn right, dobe!"

Naruto's and Shirei's heads snapped around at Sasuke who had somehow managed to get on the thick branch above him. "Hurry up and come back so you can eat dinner. Hinata's worried sick about you," Sasuke mocked coolly, now using chakra to hand upside down on the branch.

Naruto looked up nervously at his teammate, scratching the back of his head. "Um, is it okay? Is Tazuna mad at me?"

Sasuke scoffed, flipping down to the ground and walking back to the house. "Nope. He understands, or at least that's what he said. Kakashi's pretty mad though."

With that, Sasuke made his way back to the house, not waiting for Naruto to follow. The blonde sighed somewhat in relief and slumped back against the tree for a moment.

"Well, I think you should dismiss yourself now, Shirei," Naruto instructed his commander clone, who turned to look at him. "…I actually have a question," Naruto asked him, quickly before the clone was dismissed. "Where do you…you know…_go_, when you dismiss?"

Shirei nodded, guessing that it was a good question to ask.

"That seal you gave each of your clones, including myself, so that you could specifically summon us, really was special," he explained. "You created our own world, actually, within your subconscious. We have become more than simple clone, us with the Rinnegan, we have become summons."

Naruto's eyebrows shot up on his head in sudden curiosity. "You said…you were in my subconscious?! My…inner place?!"

Shirei nodded, crossing his arms across his chest in a matter-of-fact way.

"Yes, and it isn't as…_spacious_…as we would like it to be, due to a certain…_occupant._"

Naruto's eyes widened now in realization, deeply inhaling his breath. "You guys stay in the same place as the _Kyuubi_?!" he nearly shouted, which would have deeply shocked anyone should they have overheard.

This statement actually caused the generally calm Shirei to chuckle.

"No, not exactly," he continued explaining. "While it is true that the Kyuubi is also in your subconscious, he is inside his own prison, due to your father's special seal. We merely roam outside of that area, which is surprisingly large, though extremely simple."

Naruto nodded, sighing in relief. If each time his clones were dismissed they had to go to the Kyuubi's cage…he would be greatly dismayed. At least they were _outside _of the cage.

Now that he thought about it, he actually had been inside his own subconscious before, the night the Cloud ninja had attacked Hinata many years ago, after his own true powers had awakened. And…it wasn't exactly…homely. That last he remembered it, it scenery was like a giant dripping sewer/prison. Guilt began to seep into him again as he thought of how his clones had to stay in that environment.

"Um, I've actually been there before, now that I remember it," Naruto explained to Shirei, who nodded in response. "Do you think…that there is a way that I can go back there, sometimes, you know, just if I wanted too?" he asked, not really knowing himself.

Shirei pondered the thought for a moment, before he gave another quick nod.

"Since you've been there before, I am sure it is possible for you to return. I will inquire with the other clones, and possibly the Kyuubi himself, and see whether or not we can figure out a way for you to return."

Naruto smiled under his mask, glad that a way for him to return there could be possible. He was thinking that he might even be able to find a way to…make his own subconscious more…livable for his clones, if that was even possible. He really hoped it was.

With that, Shirei waved a goodbye and vanished in a shimmer of wind, leaving Naruto to return to the household again.

* * *

_Tazuna's House_

Naruto returned to the kitchen, hoping that everyone had gone off so he could eat alone. However, he found out that Hinata, Sai and that village girl remained in the kitchen, apparently laughing at something or the other. When Naruto entered, Hinata's eyes widened and she snapped around to the stove behind her, pulling off something from it in a quick manner.

She rushed over to the table, and laid down a plate of food at the seat where Naruto had chosen to eat for the past week. "Ano," she started, now nervously pressing her fingers together, though she was able to maintain eye contact with him. Why did she do that again? "I've been heating up your meal, so i-it should still be warm…I hope." She began to look doubtfully at the plate, probably thinking that she should've heated it up more.

Naruto smiled at her under his mask, and politely bowed to his teammate. "Thanks, Hinata-chan!" he responded, before jumping into the meal and hogging it down with the occasional complements to the blushing chef.

Haku tilted her head curiously at the two, observing what was going on. Why was the girl blushing like that? Sai, who had noticed Haku's face, smiled to himself and leaned over to her.

"She really likes him," he quietly whispered, so that no one else would hear. Not that anyone else could, with Naruto's loud antics. "She does whatever she can to make him proud of her. In a way it's what she lives for; others being proud of her, Naruto especially."

Haku nodded, a smile growing across her face. Finally, she could somewhat understand why Naruto had always been a 'touchy' subject around Hinata. She still didn't understand why that had anything to do with the girl's cheeks heating up, but some of the confusion was cleared.

"Wow, that meal was great!" Naruto explained, finishing the meal in record time, as if he hadn't eaten in days. Eventually, his face sobered up and he looked up to Sai, Haku and Hinata, with slight worry in his eyes.

"Um, is everything with Inari…alright? Was Tazuna pissed?" he asked, trying to get a full scope with what's going on. He was relieved though when no one looked angrily back at him.

"Yeah, everything's okay, for the most part," Sai responded. "But why did you attack Inari in the first place? It looked like you were going to kill him from where I was looking! One second you were sitting down, and the next, you were lifting him into the air and glowing with gold! You didn't even say anything to him; you kind of just glared at him until Kakashi pulled you off!"

Naruto chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. What did he mean he didn't' say anything? He remembered telling Inari…eh, whatever.

"Well…err…I'm not really sure why I didn't just scold him properly or something," he tried explaining, attempting to word his thoughts correctly. "I just saw him screaming at Hinata, you know, and something went off inside me! No one screams at Hinata-chan like that without a reason! She didn't do anything to deserve it! She never does!"

Sai nodded, along with Haku, beginning to understand now why he would do something like that. He was just mad that his friend was getting yelled at and he wasn't thinking. Hinata however, wasn't able to take such a complement with everything heating up and her eyes going into tunnel vision, focusing on Naruto.

_He…he really d-did that f-for me?!_

"Anyways," Naruto said, trying to change the subject, "Haku, where exactly are you from?" he asked, trying to get to know this newcomer more. He didn't catch how she jumped a little at the question, but she instantly regained her composure and was able to respond in a clear voice.

"Um, I'm originally from Kiri," she responded, hoping the conversation would end on that. Naruto shrugged and nodded, happy enough with that answer, but Sai decided to continue the interrogation.

"Yeah, I remember seeing you there," he added, nodding thoughtfully to himself, thinking back. "So then why did you come over here to the Land of Waves?" he asked, curiously looking at her. Now, it was time for Haku to start making up some random facts, and quickly.

"Well, you see," she started, suspiciously nervously, not that anyone caught it, "My…um, sensei, decided that we should come over here…I'm not that sure why, though."

Hinata now decided to join the conversation, now fully recovered from Naruto's compliments. "A-Ano, you have a sensei?" she asked, somewhat curiously. "How come we've never seen him? You're over here all the time, so I feel like we should have met him by now…"

Haku smiled lightly, tilting her head.

"He's not very social."

"Still, I kinda want to meet this guy," Sai said. "After all, he must be a good instructor!" he insisted, smiling his usual fake or real smile. (Nobody could tell the difference)

"No!" Haku said rather loudly, mentally cursing herself for doing that. "Um, I mean, he's really not that social!"

"What's his name?" Naruto now asked.

"Um…he didn't tell me…"

"That's pretty strange. What rank is he?" Sai continued.

"A-Anbu."

"Where do you live?"

"With sensei."

"What? You don't have a family?"

Now, Haku's head fell down to the ground, showing sadness. "They died…long ago, when I was young…"

Naruto and Sai's eyes widened and they stopped the interrogation. "Oh…sorry about that," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. "If it makes you feel any better, we all understand your pain. Each of us has lost both or one of our parents, so we've been through that experience."

Haku shrugged it off, deciding to talk about herself. After all, it's not like she had ever told anybody her story before, aside from Zabuza.

"It's okay. They weren't even my real parents. They adopted me when I was really young."

"So…do you have any siblings?" Hinata asked now, being careful with his questions. Surprisingly, this caused Haku to shrug again, apparently deep in thought.

"I think I do, if that means anything. I had a brother, long ago, if I remember correctly. My adoptive parents told me that a young man who claimed to be my brother dropped me off at their doorstep when I was an infant. They didn't tell me his name, or anything, so I still don't understand what my last name is. My brother still could be out there, and I could walk by him on the streets and not recognize him."

Naruto's eyes widened, now really connecting with Haku. "You too? My brother left me a long time ago, and I still have no idea why. Sasuke's brother left with him, along with a girl close enough to Hinata to be her sister. We're all planning to look for them after we become Chunin and train really hard!"

Now it was Haku's turn to be in shock. They all had parents who had died too, and siblings who had deserted them?! They really were alike!

"I used to have a brother as well," Sai surprisingly said, causing everyone to focus on him. Naruto's reaction was immediate and he jumped up from the table.

"What?!" he shouted, looking at Sai in great surprise. "You do?! How come you've never told us about that?!"

Sai shrugged, not really remembering why he didn't. "Cause I never really knew him, so he wasn't a big deal to me. Apparently, I'm not even from Konoha!" he stated, causing Naruto's and Hinata's mouths to widen.

"When I was an infant, like Haku, I was dropped off at this village by some mysterious young man. I have no idea who he is, and neither did the Hokage, but he wasn't from Konoha. When the Hokage was deciding what to do with me, Danzo offered to take me in as part of his 'family', which I did. Since then, I grew up a part of Root."

Naruto fell back in his chair, really surprised with all the new information that they were learning.

"Sheesh! I can't believe that all of our siblings deserted us!" he stated leaning his head back and looking upwards.

"But I think we'll all find them one day! Who knows, there could be a place where all runaway siblings go off too when they leave their village behind!"

* * *

_Later that Night_

Inari sat outside of his room on the built in patio, staring up at the moon. Occasionally, a sparkling teardrop would fall and splatter on the photo of his father that was being held in his shaking hands. Kaiza wasn't his genetic father, but he had taken up the role swiftly and with ease for the past few years of Inari's life. Inari had finally been happy to live with a father that he never grew up with! But of course, all that had to change when Gato began to take control of their humble village of the waves.

Kaiza had been the only man brave and bold enough to defy the reign of Gato. And in the end, the only way for Gato to get rid of this threat was just that; to get rid of it. Kaiza was humiliated and killed right before his own terrified eyes, never once begging for the mercy that Gato was screaming for him to plead for. He lived the life of courage, and died in courage. Inari thought that maybe he could grow strong from his father's example, and one day defy Gato as he had, but all that came to mind when he thought of his past father was sadness, and a grief and anger strong enough to make him cry.

And to think these Konoha ninja who come out of nowhere can just act like everything was fine? Like the village wasn't going through a great depression? Gato is sure to understand the significance of the bridge; it is the only light of hope everyone in the village has for escaping the man's grasps! Did they think that he was just going to let them finish the bridge undisturbed? That Gato he knew, the one that killed his father in front of him, destroyed all hope. He was more likely to hire an army than let the bridge be complete!

"You're lucky to be alive."

Inari's head snapped around at the sudden sound of a voice that appeared to come from behind him, shocking him out of his depressing thoughts.

"I thought Naruto was going to kill you. If there's one thing to know about Naruto…never do _anything_ to his precious people that he doesn't like."

Inari squinted his eyes and looked up to the shady figure that was standing on the roof above him. His red hair was illuminated by the eerie moonlight and the wind blowing it to the side, revealing a strange tattoo on his forehead, and Inari could tell that this guy probably didn't have a problem with death. Still, Inari's pride began to surface and decided to fight back with the strange ninja.

"I couldn't care less about this guy's 'precious people'!" he retorted back at Gaara, who frowned down at him with deadly distaste. "And I don't care about him either! Within this week…he's dead! I guarantee it!"

Gaara continued to frown and crossed his arms. "Is that how you think of the ninja who saved your grandfather's life already?" Gaara asked, causing Inari's eyes to widen slightly. "Here's another thing you should know about Naruto: he doesn't go down easily."

Inari shook his head and began to chuckle. "You Konoha people just don't get it, do you?!" he began to raise his voice, starting to get annoyed with these newcomers. "I don't care who Naruto is, opposing Gato is like trying to make a river flow the other way! You can't do it!"

Gaara looked up at the moon now, thinking more to himself now. "If Naruto's friends were endangered, I'm sure he would find a way to do that," he replied, quietly. "He has a way of…surprising people."

Inari grinded his teeth together in aggravation. "You talk about this guy like he's something different from every other normal human here!" Inari shouted, shaking his head angrily. "He's always smiling and laughing…but he'll learn! You'll _all_ learn what it feels like to lose someone precious to you! That's something _Gato _has a talent of doing!"

Inari was surprised when Gaara's only reaction to that statement was a low and long laugh, which _really _ticked Inari off. He was even more surprised when the image on the roof dispersed into sand and Gaara appeared several feet in front of him.

"You know _nothing_ about suffering," Gaara hissed out in an emotionless way that scared Inari more than if he had been shouting at him. "And don't act like you know who we are, either. Every Konoha ninja who is here has been through more suffering than you have. But you just like to stay in your little world of self pity, not caring to think that there could possibly be others beside you who suffer. You disgust me."

Inari now took a step back, his bottom lip trembling for reasons he didn't know why. He unconsciously clutched the picture of his father harder in his hands, causing Gaara to look down at the picture.

"Judging by the picture, and the fact that I've never seen your father, I would guess that he somehow died, and Gato had something to do with it," Gaara concluded, causing Inari's eyes to widen. "He was probably a nice guy too, right?" Inari nodded, slowly.

"Well let me tell you something about myself," Gaara continued. "My father was always cruel to me, and he would often send assassins to try and kill me. They never did. My only caretaker and friend to me tried to kill me as well. My mother was sacrificed before I was born to help place a _demon _inside of me, for which was the cause of the misery that I endured growing up without friends. I planned to kill my father, and eventually kill myself when I was done, but instead I had friends who gave me the will to live. I met Kairi…she's probably the only reason why you haven't heard that Suna was destroyed and everyone in it was killed."

Inari did all he could do to keep his gasps and sharp intake of breath as quiet as he could.

"I'm not the only one. Kairi lost her family, and so did Sai. Sasuke's family was forcefully killed by his own brother, Hinata's mother died and her sister figure deserted her, and her own father puts her down and insults her. But Naruto…Naruto has made the biggest loss of all of us.

"He was raised without any parents, and he found out that everyone in the village hated him for reasons he didn't know. However, he had one brother who he adored and aspired to be like. It was that brother, who gave him hope in a light of darkness that left the village a murderer, not telling Naruto anything. Only to add things on, Naruto found out that his own father had died protecting the village and sealing a demon inside of him. Then, to top it off, Naruto found out his real destiny, that one day the fate of the world will rest on his shoulders. I'm surprised that he can _sleep_ at night."

And with that, Inari was left alone and Gaara once more disappeared in a gust of sand and wind, leaving Inari to dwell in new thoughts.

* * *

_The Next Day_

"I've found him."

Sub-Zero's eyes widened Itachi reported back to him after they had left searching for information the past night.

"Ah, finally. Lead me, then. It's finally time to kill Zabuza. I've been looking forward to this!"

* * *

_Elsewhere_

"Are you ready, Haku?"

Haku finished packing her senbon in her pouch, and when she was finished, she pulled her hunter mask down over her face. Today, they would kill the bridge builder, collect the money and leave the Land of Waves to avoid the two killers who were after them.

"Hai, I am prepared, Zabuza-sensei."

Zabuza chuckled, flexing his large muscles in preparation. "Good, good. It's finally time to kill that damn copy ninja and the bridge builder! I've been looking forward to this all week!"

* * *

_Elsewhere_

Kakashi jumped up and down on the balls of his feet, stretching his arms as well.

"Well, I think I'm finally ready to get back on duty," he said to the very anxious Genin before him.

Naruto cheered and threw up his hands in excitement. "Ah! Finally!" he shouted, dancing around. "Does this mean that we can go back on patrol duty and _not _train with you anymore?!" he asked, very excited to not train.

Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly, pulling out his favorite porn…err, literature. "Sure, I don't see why not."

Naruto shrieked in excitement, turning around to see if his teammates were as happy as he was. Hinata was smiling as usual, and Sasuke was smirking to himself. "Yes!" he shouted, dancing around Sasuke, really annoying the Uchiha. When he realized that Sasuke was ignoring him, he changed his direction and picked up Hinata, swirling her around to her secret delight.

Kakashi chuckled and began walking towards the bridge. "I don't know why you're so happy," he commented to Naruto. "I don't think that bridge duty is going to be that exciting…"

Naruto scoffed and put Hinata down, who was flushing a healthy shade of red. "Ha! You, sensei, of all people should know about the Road of Life! Wherever important people go, important things happen!"

Kakashi chuckled again, shrugging his shoulders. "Touché, Naruto. Let's see how the Road of Life will come into play."

* * *

_Trail to the Bridge_

"So let me get this straight," Sasuke said, looking at Naruto with curiosity while the team was walking towards the bridge. "You created near-permanent clones that all look different and can communicate with you through your Rinnegan?"

Naruto nodded. "Yep! That's pretty much it. You've already met Shirei, but you haven't seen my other commanders! There's Endo, Jiyuu, Ryozo, _Natsumi_…"

Both Sasuke and Hinata's head snapped up straight upon hearing the last name.

"Wait, you have a _girl _clone?!" Sasuke asked, looking at Naruto incredulously.

Naruto nodded, somewhat nervously. "Yeah, I'll introduce you guys to her!"

Naruto closed his eyes, and activated his Rinnegan. He had already summoned his commanders and deployed them around the area, so that they would be prepared for anything, if worst comes to worst and something happens with the bridge.

'_Natsumi, I'm going to summon you to my location," Naruto called out to his clone. _She wasn't that far away from him; after all, it was her responsibility to protect Naruto.

"_Hai."_

He looked in his memories for the mental image and seal of Natsumi, and when he did, he projected the seal onto the ground next to him._ Cast!_

In a shimmer of image, Natsumi appeared next to Naruto, smiling and playfully saluting at him. "Ohayo, Naruto-sama!" she greeted, looking around at the group who was staring at her.

Sasuke was expecting some blond girl that looked exactly like a girly version of Naruto…but this girl was…different!

Hinata couldn't help but frown at the beauty of the girl clone of Naruto. She didn't look that much like him, but for some reason, she could immediately identify the clone as Naruto's. Strange…she hoped that this clone of his wouldn't get the wrong ideas and try to _get _with _her _Naruto-kun…

Kakashi giggled as he flipped the page in his porno book. Man, it didn't matter how many times he re-read this! It was incredible!!

"Everyone, this is Natsumi Namikaze," Naruto introduced, giving her a formal introduction, "and Natsumi, this is my team, who you already know!"

Natsumi gave a polite bow to everyone, and then she dispersed, going back to her previous position hidden elsewhere.

Naruto smiled when he noticed the mixed looks that he saw on his team. "So, _now _do you think my Shadow Clone Jutsu is cool?" Naruto egged Sasuke, elbowing him in the side. The arrogant Uchiha grunted and crossed his arms, feigning indifference.

"Hn."

The group walked on through the trail in the woods, headed on track to the bridge. They conversed happily with each other as they were all exited to get back on duty and finish the job. Their little 'escort' mission had turned into a full time 'save the village and defeat an A to S-ranked ninja' mission, which gave them reason to be excited for completing it. Naruto could only imagine the look on everyone's face when he reported back to the village. Iruka especially would freak out over such a mission.

Also, the Chunin Exams were coming up, which Naruto was really looking forward too. He and his friends would finally achieve the rank of Chunin, and then they would leave the village and search for his brother…as well as find out more about this 'Evil King' the scroll spoke about.

All of that would soon come, but only once this bridge finally finished. Tazuna said that with the rate they were working, it would only take another several days and then it would-

"_Naruto!_" a voice shouted in his head, causing Naruto's eyes to widen. It was Shirei's, his head Rinnegan clone, and he _really _did not like the way he had said his name.

"_What is it?!"_ Naruto asked, thinking back to his commander, who he had sent ahead to the bridge earlier this morning.

"_The bridge…_" his clone seemed to be panting, as if it had just finished a long sprint. "_It's under attack! Zabuza and his apprentice have come back! Their destroying the bridge and killing the workers!! You have to come-_"

Naruto's mind went blank when his connection with Shirei was broken and the conversation stopped. He was instantly flooded with the memories of his clone, and they were not pleasant in the least. The majority of the bridge was covered in an advancing thick mist that was rapidly growing. Naruto could see memories of workers running by with senbon covering their bodies, or some getting decapitated by a very family zanbato. He saw sand swirling around to protect the workers and Zabuza, and Sai engaging the masked apprentice. Anko had been battling off Zabuza, but even she was getting tossed around in the fight, being thrown side to side.

"The bridge!" Naruto shouted out loud to his team, so that they could all hear. "It's under attack! We have to go!"

Team 7 reacted immediately and, behind Kakashi, they all dashed into the trees, heading immediately over to the slaughter which was happening on the bridge.

* * *

_Tazuna's House_

Ryozo sighed in a bored manner as he sat on top of Tazuna's rooftop. He had been assigned by Naruto to keep watch over Tazuna's family in their absence, should anything happen to them. Ha! As if! He thought that he was supposed to be in charge of the badass clone group; not the baby sit group! You know what? He didn't care anyways. Besides, this way he could catch up on his napping time. He placed his bow and arrow next to him and laid back, sighing happily.

Each of the commander clones had been given different weapons shortly after their creation. He had requested for a bow and arrow, because he needed a weapon with range, seeing how he was in charge of a group relying on stealth. Sure, he could ask for a katana, but how unoriginal was that? He had practiced with the bow for the majority of his little free time (organizing his ranks consumed a lot of time) and he had gotten quite skilled with it. Also, because of the fact that his arrows were generally medium to long range, he had some short ranged weapons as well. He had chosen to wield kunai for the moment, but he had another weapon in mind that he would have to ask Naruto about. And of course, whatever skills he learned were passed on to Naruto because of their mental link.

About fifteen minutes into his nap, Ryozo felt a nagging feeling in the back of his head, and he sat up on the roof, yawning. He looked around, and his purple spiral eyes immediately widened when he saw two unknown men armed with samurai swords walk toward the house. He smirked, chuckling to himself.

"Haha! Finally, some action!"

__________

Inari cowered in fear as his mother was thrown against the wall by the strange men who had burst into the room. They had demanded for them to 'accompany' them, but of course his mother had refused and asked them to leave her house immediately, which in turn caused him to be thrown into the wall.

"Alright then," one of the mean looking men said, cracking his knuckles. Inari could guess that he wasn't upset at all that they would have to force them. "Looks like I'm gonna have to use a little muscle to convince you two!"

The man walked up to Inari, who couldn't do anything to stop him but helplessly bunch his broad chest, which only made the man angry. He picked up Inari with one strong arm, and tucked him in the arm to restrict his movements.

"Let go of my son!" Tsunami yelled, storming at the first man, only to be grabbed by the second.

"I'm _really _sorry ma'am," the sly looking one claimed in a voice dripping in sarcasm. "But I'm going to have to decline your offer. Hey, do you think I can have a little fun with this one first?" he asked the bigger guard with a sickening chuckle. "She's kinda cute and-"

_Swish!_

The man was unable to finish his sentence as an arrow lodged itself through the back of his neck. He gasped in pain and grabbed his own neck, and gagged for a second before he fell over, dead.

Tsunami's eyes widened in horror at the grotesque scene in front of her as well as the other two people in the room. The first guard's eyes darted to the door that they had left open, and he cursed loudly. He tightened his grip around Inari and held the boy out, almost fearfully. Whoever was out there was obviously skilled, as they were able to hit his partner in a vital spot through the open door and remain unseen.

"Wh-Whoever's out there," the guard stumbled out, trying to lose his fear. "I have the boy! If you want the boy to live, then-"

This man was also interrupted when a hand reached around his neck with a kunai and slashed him open, causing him to fall to the ground silently.

When the deed was done, both Tsunami and Inari looked up at Ryozo in horror before they noticed his similarity to Naruto, though he strangely had purple hair.

"N-N-Naruto," Tsunami stuttered out, fearful that this could be another attacker. "I-Is that you?"

Ryozo shook his head, smirking under his mask at the looks he was receiving. "Nope. I'm his shadow clone, if that means anything to you," he responded, waving his hand to the side. Instantly, several other masked clones appeared in the room, and each looked differently. They picked up the fallen bodies, and disappeared as silently as they appeared.

Ryozo yawned again, someone disappointed in the outcome of the fight. These guards sent out to capture the family weren't that talented, though it wasn't as if Ryozo gave them the chance. Naruto, his creator, probably would have given a speech about how it was cruel to do their acts, but he wouldn't waste his breath. In many ways, he was more…efficient than Naruto. Yes, he would lose in a fight with his creator, but, they thought differently, in major ways. Naruto would also most have likely ran in the room and thrown a Rasengan at the two, but he decided to end the battle before it got anywhere.

He turned to look at the shivering and fearful looks he was still getting from the two.

"Those two needed to die," he said, as if that explained everything. "I'm sure you two understand what would have happened had I let them lived. And don't get me wrong, I could've killed them before they even entered the house, but I needed to understand why they came in the first place."

"_Bodies have been disposed._"

Ryozo nodded at the message he received and headed out the house. However, before he could actually leave, Inari stood up and shouted to him,

"Wait! Where are you going now?!" he asked, causing Ryozo to turn his head.

"The bridge. If you two were targeted by those lowly swordsmen, it means that someone out there knows that you guys were 'alone' at home, and that it was the time to capture you. Also, I've contacted my Commander who informed me that the bridge is currently under heavy attack."

With that, he briskly left the room, leaving the two silent behind him.

* * *

_Bridge_

When Team 7 arrived at the scene, they were shocked to discover the carnage that littered it and the destruction of a portion of it. There were several large snakes which were being attacked by even larger massive water dragons which snaked up from the sides of the bridge from the water below. Mist covered the majority of the bridge, which made it nearly impossible to see all of the details.

Suddenly, Gaara jumped down next to the group, panting heavily and carrying two bodies on his shoulders which he laid carefully on the ground. They all immediately recognized them as the bodies of Tazuna and Kairi, which caused their eyes to widen in fear.

"He got us by surprise," Gaara panted out, falling on his knees in exhaustion. "One second everything was normal and the next the sky was full of raining senbon and a water dragon ran into the side of the bridge! I was lucky that I was able to shield Tazuna and Kairi from most of the damage, but their unconscious now."

Kakashi nodded, immediately pulling down his mask to reveal his Sharingan. "Good work, Gaara. Stay back and protect the bridge builder and Kairi while we fight off Zabuza. Hinata, stay with Gaara and be his eyes so that no one can sneak up on him and get them. Naruto and Sasuke, go help Sai with the hunter-nin! NOW!"

"Hai!" a chorus of salutes rang out before they all quickly dispersed. Gaara and Hinata jumped back with the unconscious bodies farther on the bridge while Naruto and Sasuke dashed off into the mist where they could see the feint image of Sai battling the mist ninja.

__________

Sai twisted his body sideways to avoid the senbon which flew by him. The area he was fighting in was generally clear of mist, as his opponent needed to see as well. Strangely enough, Sai recognized that this female hunter-nin was holding back from her true potential, which he saw the last time they fought, which greatly confused him. Before, she had only been aiming at his vital points, but now Sai could tell that she was aiming particularly for the spots that wouldn't kill him. But that still didn't make her an easy opponent.

To his great relief, he saw two shadows run through the mist and into the clearing next to him, revealing themselves to be Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sai!" Naruto called out, jumping to his side and pulling out a katana. "Are you alright?!" he asked though his Rinnegan eyes zoomed in on the target in front of him.

Though the painter ninja was out of breath, he was able to nod in response. The three formed a triangle with each other as they had practiced before in training, and they were about to attack their opponent when she began walking towards them, slowly.

"I was going to spare your life," she said in a strangely familiar muffled voice. "But now it seems that trying to disarm all of you will be impossible. I'm sorry, but it ends here."

With that, Haku went through several hand-seals ending on one that Naruto had never seen before.

"_Ninja Art: Shadow Senbon!_"

Haku threw her arms forward and dozens of senbon began to rapidly fire out of her sleeves, forcing the three to separate and evade the attack. Taking initiative again, she flew forward in the air to her opponent closet to her, Sasuke.

With his Sharingan activated, Sasuke managed to block her attack and push her arms to the side, but he was pushed backwards as she reversed her momentum and hit him with a surprisingly powerful mid-section kick.

Right when she landed, she flipped backwards to avoid a gale of wind sent at her, courtesy of Naruto. However, just when she regained balance she had to lean her head back to avoid a kunai which sailed by her head. Sai, the one who threw it, continued his attack and formed several seals, shouting out,

"_Ink Release!_"

Holding his seal to his mouth, he spit out a thin geyser of black ink which flew at Haku. But, halfway through its path he formed a different seal which caused the ink to shift into a snake, preparing to rear its head and bite her.

However, Haku was once again able to avoid being hit by destroying the creation with quick thrown senbon. Directly after, she through her hand up to the side and formed a solid wall of ice in front of her to protect herself from the stream of fire she saw Sasuke produce out of the corner of her eyes.

Seconds later, she turned around and parried Naruto's mid air katana attack with her own senbon without a moment to spare, though she was unable to block his lightening fast follow up kick which knocked her to the side.

"_Water Release: Water Wave Jutsu!_" she called out as she as she was able to gather her chakra again. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the attack coming, forcing him to jump in the air to avoid being swept away.

"_Wind Release: Wind Scythe Jutsu!_" Haku called out again, once more shocking Naruto. This girl had _three _elements? How could she use _ice_, _water_, and _wind_? Naruto thrust his hands forward in a quick and seal-less wind jutsu which was able to counter hers, though he was pushed away in the air from the recoil.

Haku's eyes then darted back and forth between Sasuke and Sai, who were charging at her with their weapons raised. She was finally going to have to use _that _jutsu, after all. She couldn't play around with these guys anymore without the heavy risk of her getting caught off guard which would lead to her death. However, she knew that with the way things were going, she was most likely going to have to actually kill them, which was something she really didn't want to do.

But her feelings didn't matter, not when Zabuza's dream was endangered.

"_Ice Release: Crystal Ice Mirrors_!" she shouted out, forming her own signature hand seal.

Instantly, multiple mirrors of ice began to form around the trio of Konoha ninja, which greatly confused them. And, just as quickly, Haku immersed herself into one of the mirrors, surprisingly reappearing in each and every image.

"This is my unique _ice _technique," she explained to them, in that same familiar voice which caused all three of them to wonder where it came from. "No one has ever escaped from these mirrors alive, even ninja much stronger than you three now," she claimed, hoping to discourage them. It was possible that if they didn't fight back to hard, or grew weary, she would be able to hit certain points on their bodies that would knock them out for good, without killing them! Then she would be able to fulfill Zabuza's wish _and _get away with not killing her friends!

Ha, as if they were considered her 'friends'. No friends would fight each other to the death like they were doing now.

Naruto's Rinnegan eyes quickly scanned back and forth between each mirror which levitated motionlessly in the air before him. He could see a ridiculous amount of chakra in each one, and he knew that it would take a lot more than a kunai to shatter one of them. In fact, he didn't think _any _of his wind jutsu would take them out…aside from a Rasengan…there was a _ridiculous _amount of chakra in each mirror. He would either have to hit one with a strong attack or escape through the openings between each one.

He looked at his friends along side of him and he knew that they understood the same thing. Nodding at each other, they each made a quick dash to different sides of the prison, running as fast as they could to make it out in time…

But just as they almost made it to the edges, a blur appeared in front of them and they were painfully kicked back to the center. Naruto shook his head in dizziness, wondering what the hell just happened.

"She's so fast!" Sasuke commented, being able to see it with his eyes. "She used an advanced shunshin to move between the mirrors and appear in front of each of us!"

Naruto swore to himself as the images of the hunter-nin once more appeared in the mirrors in front of him. Thinking quickly, he summoned around ten clones who all ran to different corners of the dome, though each one was immediately pierced and dispersed before they could reach anywhere.

"That's not going to work," Haku commented in a bored manner, her voice emanating from each mirror. "These mirrors of mine are as hard as metal, probably harder. Nothing can penetrate from the outside, and nothing can from the inside. Also, within these mirrors, I can travel at speeds faster than any of you combined, so escape is impossible. I am sorry, but you will all have to die now."

As soon as she finished that sentence, dozens of senbon rained down from each mirror, making it impossible for them to dodge. Naruto, Sasuke and Sai managed to block several from hitting them at first, but quickly they became pierced with the needles and they fell over to the ground in pain.

"Give up and die easily," Haku spoke again, almost in a pleading voice. "There is no other way for you to get out!"

Naruto tried pulling out the senbon in his arms and legs and grunted painfully as he stood up, watching Sasuke and Sai do the same. They were in _big _trouble if they couldn't get out of this place and fast. Each one of those senbon could have possibly killed all of them, and they were extremely lucky that they hadn't. He closed his eyes and thought hard, trying to find a way to get out of this devastating situation.

"_Endo!_" Naruto called out to his fighting Rinnegan clone, hoping for a response. He was responded with silence, which could only mean that his clone was dispersed at some point during the fight.

"_Jiyuu!" _Naruto mentally called out to his elemental clone, hoping to hear something. But once again, all he received was silence, which meant that that clone had also been dispersed in the fight. _Shit!_ He had sent out of his commander clones to help fight Zabuza or save the workers, but apparently each one of them had already been dispersed!

"_Naruto-sama!_" a voice called out in his mind causing Naruto's head to snap up. It was Ryozo, his special ops clone! He had forgotten about him! He had left him back at guard duty to protect Tsunami and Inari!

"_Ryozo!"_ Naruto called back to his clone. _"We're stuck in the ice mirror dome! I need you to hit one of the mirrors with a Rasengan!"_

"_Hai!_"

Naruto snapped back to reality when Sasuke stood up and blew out a large ball of fire, hoping to break or melt the ice mirrors. Unfortunately, the fire ball dispersed upon contact and the ice didn't show any signs of damage.

"Please," Haku called out once more to all of them. "Give up and let me kill you all easily! It's the only way!" she pleaded, trying to get them to understand.

"Never!" Naruto shouted back, glaring at each image in the mirror with his spiral Rinnegan eyes. "We're Konoha ninja, and we never give up! That's our way of the ninja!"

Haku sighed, hoping for the best as she pulled out a large number of her nearly infinite senbon.

"Very well. Then I am force to-"

Haku was interrupted as a loud swirling sound was heard from outside of the dome, which Sai and Sasuke immediately recognized. Moments later, one of the top mirrors erupted into shards as if exploded in a large boom as Ryozo came flying through with a Rasengan in his hand.

"Now!" Naruto shouted to his friends, all who jumped forward into the opening, hoping that Haku wouldn't be able to catch them.

To their great astonishment, by the time they had jumped into the air, dozens of more senbon flew at them, causing them to once more fall to the ground in pain. Ryozo, after being impaled by around seven of the needles, dispersed and left the three back to themselves once more. Naruto was forced to watch the ice mirror reform once more on the ground as he tried to pull out the needles which restricted his leg movements.

Haku frowned to herself from within the ice. What was that attack and how did it manage to break through her mirror? Her chakra within the mirror was supposed to instantly protect it and reform it after any sort of attack! She shook her head, trying not to worry about it. After all, her enemies were lying before her on the ground now in pain, just trying to stand up. Now would be the best time to knock them out…

To her surprise again, all three of the boys before her managed to stumble to a standing point, panting heavily but still ready to fight. Why wouldn't they stay down! They could only live if they would just accept defeat! But if they kept fighting her, she would eventually be forced to kill them!

Suddenly, Naruto charged up his hand with a strange ball of white colored chakra and charged at one of her mirrors. Noticing that it was the same design as the one that had just broken through her other mirror, Haku had no doubt that Naruto would be able to break through another one, which was a big problem to her plans. Naruto, her biggest threat so far, would have to go out first. She would have to knock him temporarily unconscious, like she was trained to do. With the greatest precision, she was able to make someone temporarily 'dead', and they would seem dead to everyone else, even keeping their heart beat low enough to be undetectable.

Right before Naruto reached the mirror, Haku's image appeared in the mirror and she swiftly stepped out of it to his surprise, grabbing his chakra filled arm with amazing speed. With her other arm, she pulled out a senbon and began to thrust her arms forward at insane speeds towards Naruto.

To Sasuke, it was almost as like he was seeing this in slow motion with his enhanced eyes. He had saw Naruto dash toward the mirror, and for a moment, he thought that his best friend could make it…but the Hunter-nin was just too fast. Now, he could see where Haku was planning to strike, and he knew that it wouldn't end well. He could also tell that that Naruto wasn't a clone, and that he was the real deal.

With insanely fast speed, Haku's arm reached up to Naruto and she promptly thrust the senbon into his neck, causing his eyes to widen for a split second and his Rasengan to distinguish. In what appeared to be slow motion to Sasuke and Sai, Naruto staggered backward for a second before he fell to the ground, deathly limp.

Sasuke's and Sai's eyes widened with horror when Naruto fell to the ground, lifeless as a doll. The presence of death was around on every mission, but to actually see Naruto…

"NO!" Sasuke shouted, charging at the Hunter-nin with all of his speed to catch her before she stepped back into the mirror. But right before he reached her, she was able to easily kick him back to the center without him even touching her.

"Knowing that he wouldn't be able to make it," Haku commented dryly, looking at Sasuke with pity, "but still trying to free you all anyways…he was a true ninja who deserved respect. Is this the first time a friend of yours has died? _This _is the way of the shinobi, and _you _of all people should know that-"

But what she wasn't expecting was for several ink snakes to jump out of the ground beneath her and enwrap her arms and legs, prohibiting her moving. She gasped in shock and looked up just in time to see Sai now running at her with his fist raised in the air.

"You BITCH!" he shouted at her, slamming his fist into her face, shattering her mask with the sheer force and actually breaking her out of his own snake bond and sending her flying into one of the mirrors. This time, she didn't merge back into it, and instead she slammed into the surface before painfully falling back to the ground.

Sasuke and Sai were both about to charge at her and finish her off when she lifted her head to look at them and the last remnants of the hunter mask fell of her face, revealing her true identity to them.

Immediately, they stopped in their tracks and stared at her in shock, not believing what they were seeing. It was Haku, the village girl who had befriended them for the past week!

Haku looked up sadly at the two shocked boys from a kneeling position, truly not wanting to see their reactions. Sai slowly walked up to her, shock and anger appearing in his normally calm eyes.

"Haku…" he mumbled out, stopping a safe distance away from her. "How…how could you? Naruto…you…"

Haku looked at Sai with remorse, and held her hand out to him. For a second, Sai looked down at her, wondering what she was doing, but suddenly several needles of ice erupted from the mirror behind Haku, swiftly impaling Sai all over, causing him to shout out in pain.

To Sasuke's horror, Sai slowly fell to the ground motionless like Naruto had done before him while Haku slowly crept backwards into her mirror, merging with the ice. Sasuke himself dropped to his knees, looking back and forth between Naruto's body and Sai's, trying to force himself to wake up from this nightmare.

"The ninja world is full of deception and death," Haku said, her voice emanating throughout the dome. Her image disappeared from the mirror in front of Sasuke and appeared in another one next to it. "As I was saying before, _you _should be able to understand this fully. As you told me before, your clan was killed off by your brother who abandoned you afterwards. You should've used that anger as your dream to become stronger…but it's too late now." Her image disappeared again and began appearing in different mirrors, though Sasuke's eyes never left the bodies of his friends.

"How could you?" he mumbled out, not acknowledging what she just said. "We trusted you…"

Haku shook her head, seeing as how he didn't understand. "I have a dream to fulfill, and _you _are not going to stand in my way," she said, pulling out senbon in the mirror's images. She continued to appear in random mirrors, hoping that Sasuke wouldn't be able to follow her.

"I have a dream as well," he claimed quietly. "I have to know why my brother did what he did…and if I have to nearly kill him to find out, then I'll do just that. I was going to do that with my friends…but you've taken that away from me! _YOU_ will not stand in _my _way! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Sasuke looked at Haku for a moment, his eyes pulsing with hatred and chakra. Suddenly, he closed them in pain, and it felt like they had temporarily ignited with fire. Falling to the ground, he clutched his head in pain as he squeezed his eyes closed, yelling in pain.

Haku looked at Sasuke with deep confusing as his screaming subsided and he continued to lie on the ground with his hands on his head, deeply breathing. Confused or not, Haku recognized her opportunity to strike, so she pulled out several senbon, and, aiming for the non-vital points on Sasuke she threw them at him with deadly speed.

When Sasuke opened his eyes, he was shocked as he saw the world with a new clarity. Looking up, he saw several senbon flying toward him, almost in slow motion, as if everything in the world aside from him was going much slower. He lightly jumped backwards, easily avoiding the senbon, noticing the powerful chakra that was pulsing through his body coming from his eyes and the seal on his shoulder.

Suddenly, it dawned on him what was going on. He had activated the next part of his Sharingan! He looked in a nearby mirror and focused on his reflection, noticing that indeed he had three tomoes in each eye; the sign of a full and complete Sharingan. But that also meant that after the battle, he would pass out and have to fight with his own Kagai Mangekyou again, for his life. Things were not going to be fun.

He looked up again, and noticed that Haku was once more switching between mirrors, though much slower than before to him. Eventually, she jumped out from one of the side ones and nearly flew towards him in the air with a shunshin, though he caught the motion out of the side of his eye.

Turning, he snapped he hand out and grabbed her wrist, using her momentum to throw her in the other direction, causing her to slam against one of the mirrors again.

Haku cursed as she slowly reentered her mirror again. What was going on?! She had used a shunshin within her dome! How had he even seen her, let alone counter attack?!

Sasuke pulled out his katana slowly, walking toward the mirror that Haku had retreated to, grinning evilly. He was going to get his revenge on this girl for killing his friends, and he was going to like ever second of it. He could feel his eyes and seal taking charge of his body, giving him mental suggestions, and he allowed it to happen, loving the powerful feeling. This was supposed to happen each time he 'upgraded' his Sharingan, and though he knew that it was very dangerous letting his seal have control, he currently didn't mind. The anger that he was feeling was replacing the sadness and pain, which was a great thing to him.

Haku, almost on default, threw a volley of senbon at Sasuke, either to harm him or slow him down. However, all he did to stop the quickly thrown needles was swipe his katana, batting each and every one away without blinking. Haku's eyes widened at the incredible feat, also noticing that most of the senbon had been cut in half.

Sasuke looked down at his own katana, which was glowing with a strong blue chakra. He strongly felt the urge to impale Haku with it, and he saw the image of Haku being pierced with it, so he smiled, agreeing with his eyes.

Faster than Haku's previous speed, Sasuke hurled the katana at her image in the mirror, the blade whirling around in the air before it surprisingly impaled in the ice, though Haku was able to switch mirrors before it hit. To her great surprise, Sasuke's katana had actually managed to pierce through the ice, causing it to shatter and fall to the ground. He walked over to it, and bent down to pick up his katana, turning his head so that his Sharingan bored into Haku's very soul.

_Crap! _ Haku thought out mentally, fidgeting around with her senbon. She could restore the broken mirror, but she had already used up far too much chakra, and for some reason she felt as if Sasuke didn't even want to escape anymore.

Taking initiative, Haku switched mirrors again and flew out at Sasuke from behind, though his eyes caught her and he was able to block her senbon with his katana. For a split second, they glared at each other, and Haku suppressed a shutter from _evil _she was seeing in his eyes.

Haku jumped back quickly before she was overpowered, and she was about to attack again when she realized that she couldn't move. _"What's going on?" _she thought to herself, freaking out as Sasuke began to walk toward her. Why couldn't she move?!

It wasn't until she looked into his Sharingan again that it dawned upon her what was going on.

_Genjutsu!_

Shakily and slowly, Haku managed to use her own senbon to stab herself lightly in her arm, though it was enough to break her out of Sasuke's paralyzing jutsu and go through several quick hand-seals.

"_Ice Release: Dragon's Breath!_"

Bringing her seal to her mouth, Haku poured chakra out from her mouth which transformed into a powerful stream of icy mist, enveloping Sasuke.

However, instead of the desired effect, Sasuke disappeared at the last second and appeared behind Haku, horizontally slashing his sword, slicing Haku in half. But instead of receiving the desired blood, Sasuke was rewarded only with water which splashed to the ground. Even with his new eyes, Haku was still apparently going to be a challenge to him.

* * *

_Outside_

Kakashi and Anko were having an equally difficult time with Zabuza, and they were both currently standing back to back together in the dense mist, wondering where Zabuza would strike next. The entire area was covered in the chakra filled mist, currently blocking Kakashi's chakra sensing doujutsu, and efficiently blinding him. Pulling out a kunai in precaution, Kakashi allowed himself to glance in the general direction of Naruto, Sasuke and Sai, hoping that they were alright.

* * *

_Naruto's Mindscape_

Naruto sat up in a dark room, immediately noticing the damp ground and eerie glow, recognizing it to be his own mindscape, specifically his seal. He stood up, brushing himself off and he began walking towards where he had gone last time; the Kyuubi's chamber.

He turned the corner of his ridiculously large and tall hallways, and looked on from a distance at the giant cage which he could feel the Kyuubi lied beyond.

"Yo."

Naruto turned around quickly at the greeting and he was surprised to see his squad of Rinnegan clones walk toward him, Ryozo, the cool purple haired one, being the one to greet him. Every one of them, including his commander Shirei, walked up to him, and stood next to him calmly.

"Hey guys!" Naruto greeted back, smiling happily. Still, he scratched his head and looked at them curiously. "Um…do you guys know why I'm here?" he asked, hoping that they might have an idea.

"You passed out unconscious," Shirei responded for the group, fixing the position of his dark glasses. "I'm guessing that you show up in this place every time you pass out, or almost die."

Naruto nodded solemnly, remembering what was going on outside his body. He just hoped that Sasuke and Sai would be alright…

"Your friends are alright…for now."

The entire group's attention quickly turned to the other end of the hallway, where Naruto had came from, where there was a tall figure walking towards them. His figure was mostly shaded, and before he could completely come into view, he stopped, his body partially covered in shadow.

"I'm not sure for how long though. Your friend, Sasuke, might lose control, and not only that, but I sense powerful chakra signatures approaching you."

Naruto was about to open his mouth and first ask who the stranger was, but he was interrupted by a loud and booming voice.

"**Fools…all of you. Weak-minded little morsels**," the Kyuubi commented in a terrifyingly low voice, causing the room to rumble with the pure bass of his voice. "**If this seal didn't prevent my escape, and if your eyes didn't imprison my chakra, there would be no one out there to threaten you. I was cursed with an ignorant vessel…one with **_**you**_**, none-the-less, one with the Triforce.**"

Naruto was at a loss, wondering if the Kyuubi was referring to him or the new figure that had appeared. Finally, he had to ask what was going on before the conversation continued any further.

"Wait!" he shouted out, becoming the attention of all. "What's going on?!" The large and crimson glowing eyes of the Kyuubi began to focus on Naruto, a pure look of annoyance and hatred written on them.

"**Do not speak to your superiors with such a tone!**" he grunted out at Naruto, his own voice creating a gust of wind.

The other mysterious newcomer, however, laughed at the Kyuubi's comment, surprising Naruto. "_Your_ superior?" he asked, finding the idea funny. "Ha! You forget who's behind bars, in the corner of someone's subconscious!"

As the man mocked him, the Kyuubi growled lowly and flared his teeth, worrying Naruto with how strong the bars that held the Kyuubi really were.

"We have little time," the figure stated, now speaking toward Naruto. "I will lend you my power for the moment, as you need to clear the evil from the bridge as well as Sasuke, and the two who are coming near. We will meet again…" he said, turning around to walk back to where he came to.

"Wait!" Naruto shouted out again, really confused. "_How _will I meet you again?"

The man stopped walking, and turned around, his figure barely visible. "Use your eyes, and look into your own mind. That is how you can enter this area and find me. That is how you can _use _me…or the pussycat, whichever you prefer."

With that, the figure held up his right hand, and the symbol of the Triforce, the three golden triangles, glowed brightly on the back of his hand.

Suddenly, Naruto's own hand began pulsing, and when he looked at it, he noticed that his own usually faded out symbol of the Triforce began glowing brightly as well, illuminating on the back of his hand.

The next thing he knew, the figure had disappeared and the world around him began to fade.

"**Ha**," the voice of the Kyuubi proclaimed, chuckling darkly. "**Rinku…you've always been an arrogant fool…**"

* * *

_Bridge_

Sasuke panted heavily and smiled as Haku stumbled to her feet, clearly exhausted. She had managed to avoid his blows and put up a good fight, but her _ice _style combination wasn't good enough to beat him with his new eyes and his power. He noticed that there was a dark glow of black chakra surrounding him, creating somewhat of an evil aura, but he didn't mind, as long as it gave him power. And it did, in great amounts!

"_Fire Release: Fire Blast Jutsu!_" Sasuke yelled out, flying through seals and blasting fire from his hands toward his opponent. To his surprise, Haku was able to counter his attack with a quick water jutsu which countered his own, turning his flames into steam. Grunting in annoyance, he prepared to charge at her when he heard a warning shout from behind him.

"Sasuke, watch out!"

Hearing Hinata's warning, Sasuke's eyes darted behind him where he quickly noticed the whirling of sword, coming quickly at him. Using expert acrobatics, Sasuke back flipped so that the large sword passed harmlessly underneath him.

Haku's eyes widened as the sword headed toward her, but before it reached her, Zabuza, the one who threw it, appeared in front of her and plucked it out of the air with expert hands.

"Haku, how are things going with you?" he asked in a light but dark manner, turning his head to look at her. He frowned when he saw the condition that he was in. "Hn…you did well, considering it was three to one, and I'm proud that you were able to take two of them out, especially the one with the Rinnegan."

Moments later, a tired looking Kakashi and Anko appeared next to Sasuke, who was looking genuinely annoyed.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi spoke to him, turning to look at his student concerned. "Are you alright? Where's Naruto and Sai?!"

Sasuke shrugged, uncaring, flaring his own dark chakra more. "Leave the girl to me," was all he responded, walking forward confidently.

Zabuza laughed at the boy's arrogance, and dashed forward to clash with him, expecting to slice him in half. However, to his surprise, and Kakashi's and Anko's, Sasuke easily avoided the slow moving swing by disappearing, reappearing directly behind Zabuza, continuing to walk toward Haku. Zabuza, annoyed, was about attack Sasuke from behind when Kakashi recognized his opportunity and dashed at him with a kunai, as well as Anko. The three Jonin engaged in a serious kenjutsu combat while Sasuke continued to walk toward Haku.

"I won't forgive you," Sasuke grunted, ignoring the battle behind him. "You're going to die, and I'm going to enjoy seeing you bleed!"

_BOOOM!!!_

The entire bridge began shaking violently with the sudden explosion, and a giant pile of smoke rose above the area, even above the mist surrounding them. Suddenly, an enormous torrent of wind blew across the entire surface of the bridge, causing Sasuke and everyone else to stop fighting and push chakra into their fight and cover their faces to avoid being swept off the bridge. What an amazing _wind _jutsu!!

Subsequently, all of the heavy chakra filled mist was blown away with the large wind, allowing everyone to see with perfect visibility once more.

Hinata, one of the first to recover, focused her Byakugan to find the source of the explosion. Her special eyes were previously clouded, because all she could see was the chakra around in the air. But now, she was able to see perfectly again, and she searched for who was by the end of the bridge where the explosion had gone off. What she found, however, was nothing like she had expected. There were two men standing on top at the end of the broken bridge, and not only did they both have _massive _amounts of chakra, but one of them looked extremely familiar to Hinata, causing her to choke up, nearly unable to breathe.

"What is it, Hinata?" Gaara asked, standing next to her and Tazuna, looking at her pale face and shivering form with concern. "What did you see?"

Hinata shook her head in fear, her eyes locked on the newcomers.

"I-I-I-Itachi!"

* * *

_End_

A/N: This chapter took a while to come out, but then again, for a period of time I was focused on finals, and now that I joined Track I've had less time after school for leisure. But anyways, I hope you've enjoyed it!

**Wtf?! Kakashi made his team train extra hard so that they could face tough opponents together, but then he separated them during the fight?! Yeah, it sounds stupid, but it made sense at the time. Their main mission is not killing Haku or Zabuza, it's protecting Tazuna. Realizing this, Kakashi had to make sure that Tazuna was going to be safe, so he needed Hinata's eyes watching over him.

A lot of my imagination recently was used up (if that's even possible) with a new story idea that's really been bugging me. So I dug deeper into it and formed a title, and a plot, and I was really excited to get it on this site! It's a new story called Sinister Chakra, and trust me, it's going to be really, really cool. It's a Naruto Sharingan story, but trust me; it's going to be different from all the others. So, if you like my writing at all, please go to my account page and check out this new story and give it some feedback. I've only got the first chapter out (as of now), but I'll be working on others later and adding to it.

No Omake as of now, as this chapter was really divided in half. I'll have one at the end of the next chapter, which will also be the end of the first Book of this story.

On to review responses. I'd first like to thank anyone who reviewed, as each one is really helpful to the story. Honestly, if you have a question, complaint, any random comment or you just want to say that you like this story, please review.

**You**. Yes, **you**. One of the many people who have read all of the chapters up to this point but decided not to review on any of them! Seriously, if you're out there and you've made it up to this point because you either like it a lot or just tolerate it, leave a review and tell me what you think. You don't need an account, and it's not that hard to say, "Cool, looking forward to the next update." If you have made it up to this point, then you _do _want to see the next chapter, and reviewing will make it quicker.

Oh, and treat the review responses (if you actually read them) as a FAQ, or a Q&A. I may have something worth noting in the responses.

Nightrain and Brownstone: I think I forgot to direct my response to you last chapter, so I apologize. But yeah, regarding OC's, I agree with you, and I won't be creating any more of them for now, at least not main characters. Thanks for reviewing and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Anotamous: Thanks! I really appreciate that you have stuck with this story and that you've reviewed every chapter of it since the first one! Sigh, if only every reader was as constructive as you were. Regarding your Omake request, I'm probably going to add it for next chapter's Omake!

Riku Uzumaki: I agree; Hinata's shyness around Naruto has always been enjoyable in the manga and anime, and I hope that I do a good job of portraying that here. Thanks for leaving a review!

dbtiger63: Zabuza was a monster in that last chapter, and I do admit that I have made him more powerful than in the anime, but for the right reasons. I believe that because I made other powerful people out there, specifically a stronger member in the 7 swordsmen, that Zabuza would be inclined to train harder, thus making him stronger. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I tried adding what I could about the elemental training!

Lightblade77: Yep, Haku's actually a girl! Gasp. Hinata's feelings will hopefully be revealed later on in the story though; it gives you something to look forward to! Like eating a doughnut when you know that the crème, the best part, is somewhere in the middle. (Terrible example, I know. I probably should delete that). Anyways…thanks for the review!

Rena the pirate jedi wizard: Thanks for another one of your reviews! I do look forward to reading them after all. I love Hinata's character too. Regarding Zabuza, its like what I said to dbtiger, he's stronger for a reason, which is that others around him are stronger, making him want to train harder when he was younger. Regarding Naruto's team being weaker, I agree and apologize to an extent. In my opinion, it was one of their first times facing such a deadly opponent, and they performed badly. Kakashi noticed this, which is why he made them train harder this time around. Anyway, Itachi entered this chapter, so I hope you're looking forward to their encounter the next one!

mackjav: Thanks for leaving a review. I think Gaara's stronger than Naruto right now, because he has almost reached his potential, and he is only building on it. Naruto can only use wind now, and Gaara can use both wind and earth to make sand. I didn't mention it yet in the story (on purpose), but elemental combinations, like sand and ice, will always be much stronger than their own individual elements. Also, he has amazing defense, and stellar offence, and he grew up without any love, and has more contact with his demon. Thanks for the review, and I like that you asked that good question!

RasenShuriken92 : Thank you, thank you!

Shurtugal Uzumaki : Thanks for the review! I hope you enjoyed it!

roshane: Yeah, I guess I made Kakashi and Anko seem weak, but only to make Zabuza look stronger. And I agree with you about Naruto learning more elements; trust me, coming along eventually. Thanks for reviewing!

GaruAlpha: I like the review as well. Thanks!


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